Srinagar: The Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Sunday warned of an alarming rise in drug and alcohol abuse among youth in Kashmir. The association appealed to parents, social organisations, teachers and religious leaders to rise against the menace.
DAK President Dr Suhail Naik said that over the years Kashmir has witnessed a considerable rise in drug abuse cases as youth are taking to drugs due to their easy availability.
“We as society, parents, social organisations, teachers and religious clerics should rise against the same and help in educating youth about the ill effects of drug addiction,” he said.
In a statement issued to media, the DAK said that J&K has witnessed a steep rise in substance abuse cases over the past two decades, with the drugs reaching places where there is even no public transport.
Naik said that said both alcohol and drugs are deleterious for mental and physical health and a social evil.
“When people lose their mental balance, they don’t difference between right and wrong. There is huge loss to their family, monetarily and socially,” he said.
DAK General Secretary Dr Owais H Dar said that both drugs and alcohol make a person liable to several kinds of infections and diseases, like HIV, Hepatitis B and C, infective endocarditis through syringes in IV drug abusers. Steep rise of drug abuse may be one of the contributing factors of sudden deaths among youth of the valley, he said.
“Diseases like fatty liver, cirrhosis, cardiac ailments, encephalopathy, accidents, blood-borne infections are very common among alcohol users,” he said.
The DAK said that many road accidents happen due to alcohol or drug abuse by drivers. It said that traffic police and other departments deputed on roads and highways should be equipped with instruments to check alcohol abuse by drivers.
The spokesperson of DAK said that people involved in trade of drugs make huge money out of it and they have destroyed almost an entire generation of youth.
“It is time to rise against this menace and support drug addicts and their families. Let us make it clear to them that drug addiction is a chronic disease and is treatable. We request society to bring victims to drug de-addiction centres for treatment,” DAK said.
The DAK said that the government’s drug de-addiction policy is not effective in terms of work that should be done to reach out by way of treatment to abusers.
The Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK) should post psychiatrists and Clinical Psychologists in all rural hospitals and start drug de-addiction day clinics across the Kashmir Division, the DAK said.

KR Desk