Awareness on substance abuse

While speaking to Rising Kashmir, Additional Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Dr. Syed Haneef Balkhi informed that the Srinagar administration is gearing up to intensify the de-addiction awareness campaigns under ‘Nasha Mukt Abhiyan’ in order to  curb the hovering drug menace in Kashmir.  The main objective of this exercise is to involve maximum number of people who get easily influenced to drug abuse and desensitize them about the catastrophic effects of drug addiction. It is a fact that drug de-addiction campaigns play an important role to combat the drug menace among youth and also help to increase public awareness about drug abuse in the society.  Over the years, drug abuse has become a major challenge for the authorities to tackle in the UT. Medical experts are of the opinion that financially weaker sections are the largest among the drug abusers in the valley. Also, easy availability of those pharmaceutical drugs that have sedative properties in almost every part of the UT is said to be one of the main factors of rising drug abuse. Young people are more likely to fall in the trap of drug abuse, particularly when the drugs or substances are easy to get. While the onus is on J&K police to seize and destroy all illegal drugs and substances and bring to book the peddlers, it is also the responsibility of other institutions and administration to intensify the fight against drug abuse. A well-disposed argument to check abuse of pharmaceutical drugs is that most of them, particularly the sedatives, are prescription drugs. There is a legal warning on the sale of prescription drugs by the sellers who have to obtain a valid prescription from the buyers. But it is a weak measure, as fake prescriptions are not hard to get, a fact that pharmaceutical drug sellers know very well. Furthermore, the availability of many such drugs in home is not uncommon. As de-addiction and rehabilitation centres maintain, there are many cases when it has begun from home due to ease of access to sedatives and substances of abuse. A stronger policy measure is required to make pharmaceutical drug stores stick to norms and not just the formality of seeking a paper.  And at home, people have to ensure that the drugs remain out of the reach of the young. The fight against drug and substance abuse is not localized; it is one social problem that has hit almost every state and country in the world. We all need to work together and support all those initiatives that are aimed towards a drug-free society.