Page 26 - Tehelka Issue 14E

CoverStory DRUG MENACE

the stakeholders including the doctors and private cilities. The treatment goes for at least a month, but
and government hospitals are willing to go the dis- continues further also. The full treatment may take
tance for checking the growing menace that threat- six months to one year.
ens to engulf the society now. The market rates for the same treatment and
According to official figures, more than 3,000 rehabilitation range from 1000 to 3,000 per day.
drug patients were treated at Jalandhar Civil Hospi- Many people still prefer private treatment firstly be-
tal and Community health Centre in Nurmahal this cause there is lack of trust on government doctors
year. Sources said there has been a surge in the num- and secondly because they want to maintain strict
ber of patients in the last few months. This could be privacy,” said Dr Garg. Rajendra Singh, one of the two
a positive sign as well, as it means more patients are attendants at the centre said there is shortage of staff
coming forward for treatment. and they are overworked as a result.
Many people are questioning the suggestion of All the patients admitted at the district de-ad-
giving death penalty to peddlers to solve the prob- diction centre are kept under lock and key and two
lem at hand. Dr Debashish Basu said it is not easy to people, including a policeman and an attendant
eradicate the drug problem from society and only a guard the centre. No outsider is allowed to meet the
sustained effort will solve the problem. According to patients. “We have to maintain these precautions to
Dr Basu, focus of the efforts against drugs should be ensure drugs are not passed to the admitted patients.
to first contain it. As long as they are here we have to be vigilant. There
A visit to the Punjab government’s District de-ad- have been a number of relapses. There are cases
diction and Rehabilitation Centre, Mohali, revealed where the patients came back for treatment for the
third or the fourth time also,” Dr Garg said.
According to Jeevan Sandesh Foundation, Kharar,
As many as two-thirds of all said they have a 9- bedded rehabilitation centre in
households in Punjab have Kharar and another centre in Delhi. “We are not into
treatment. We are just a rehabilitation centre where
we try to cure patients after medical treatment
a drug addict in their midst. through counseling. There should be occupational Rave parties
therapies courses at the de-addiction and rehabilita-
Prisons are overcrowded tion centres,‘’ it suggested. add to the rising
“Patients come from both rich and poor class. We
drugs menace
with drug-users and provide counseling. So far we have seen 150 peo-
ple ‘cleaned’ in Delhi through counseling in the last
peddlers. Its streets and three to five years. It means there has not been any RISING CASES n March 31, 17-year-old Subhash (name
relapse in as many cases,” said Raghubir Singh. He
changed) from Dangoli village in Una district
suggests that government de-addiction and reha-
farms witness the easy bilitation centres must have courses in occupational O Chitta (Heroin). People in the locality strongly
of Himachal Pradesh, died due to over dose of
therapies to motivate patients to take up some work,
availability of narcotics get busy instead of wandering around aimlessly and OF DRUG protested against the death, increasing cases of narcot-
getting caught in the drug circle again.
ics trade and inaction of the police against the culprits in
Now, in a move to wean away addicts, Brahm Mo- the area. Few months earlier a youth in Haroli had also
hindra, Health and Family Welfare Minister Punjab DEATHS POINT lost his life due to the same reason. In the last one year, at
that the number of drug patient coming for treat- said the state is aiming to provide government and least four people have died due to the intake of narcot-
ment has increased manifold in the last two years. Dr private jobs to the youngsters who give up drugs ics in the state. Himachal Pradesh has the third highest
Anshu Garg, co-incharge of the centre said patients after rehabilitation and training. But Yogeshwar TO THE DARK SIDE rate of cases in the country under Narcotics Drug and
are taken care of well in the 50-bedded hospital cum Sharma of AAP pooh-poohed the idea. “When the Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, according to the
rehabilitation centre. government cannot even provide jobs to lakhs of fit recent report of National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).
“Patients are mostly in the age group of 20-30 candidates, how can it employ the `reformed drug- OF ‘DEV BHOOMI’ Only 310 cases reported in 2003 under NDPS were
years. There have been cases of even teenagers too gists,” he said. registered in the state. In 2014 ,the number reached 644.
coming for treatment. Each district has a de-addic- Punjab has vowed to get treatment for its employ- But the latest report of NCRB reveals that Himachal
tion centre and this is the designated centre for the ees taking drugs instead of treating them as crimi- Pradesh, is now on third spot, with the total number of
Mohali district. Treatment is comparatively cheap nals and taking action against them, according to incidents per lakh population accounting for 13.1, with
here- 200 per day for treatment and stay and food. Captain Amarinder. He has also promised free treat- Manali, Kasol, Malana in Kullu districts a total of 929 cases reported in the cognizable crimes
After a few days when the patients respond to treat- ment for drug addicts from poor families. continue to remain the epicentre of narcotics under Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes in NDPS Act
ment they are shifted to the rehabilitation centre 1985. A report by the “Himachal Watcher”, an NGO, said
here and are charged just 50 per day for all the fa- LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM trade in Himachal, writes RAKESH ROCKY that NDPS cases in Himachal tripled in last 10 years.

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