J&K: Drug addiction on rise as cops remain aloof

STATE OF DESPAIR: State's psychiatric hospital finds rural youth are increasingly taking to drugs.

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Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir has seen prolonged conflict and high levels of stress, but now a new report by the state’s psychiatric hospital has found out that young people in rural areas are increasingly taking to drugs.

"I have been taking drugs since last 10 year. I get it from different people whenever I require it. I am not afraid of police, I fear nobody,” is the brazen confession of a 32-year-old drug addict from south Kashmir, Shabir Ahmad.

Even though Shabir openly smokes charas and ganja, some addicts say police remain aloof of the situation.

“I used to take drugs. But there still are many youth in our village who take drugs and the police is inactive,” Manzoor, a former drug addict, says.

A latest survey conducted by Srinagar's Government Psychiatric Hospital and Kashmir University reveals that drug abuse in rural Kashmir has reached alarming heights.

Doctors say it is not only due to the huge poppy cultivation in south Kashmir but also because of the huge sums of unauthorised medicines that reach its villages.

“The lay survey we did, revealed that 17 per cent of youth between 18-35 use opiates. In fact, more than 500 youth from one village alone enrolled in a camp that was recently organised by police and health department,” says Senior Consultant, Government Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Arshad Ahmad.

Even as violence in Kashmir is gradually on decline, the queue inside the state’s psychiatric hospitals keeps getting longer.

Doctors say prolonged conflict, stress and unemployment is prompting the youth to take to drugs.