Awantipora: Syed Mantaqi Memorial College of Nursing and Medical Technology (SMMCNMT), a constituent college of Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) Sunday hosted one day Webinar on Drug De-addiction Awareness under the red ribbon club. More than 300 students including faculty members form different collages of Kashmir attended the programme. Registrar IUST, Prof. Naseer Iqbal who was chief guest on the occasion, stressed on importance of organizing such awareness programmes and congratulated the Principal and faculty of the college for making these programmes successful.
During the scientific session, Prof. Yasir Hassan Rather, Department of Psychiatry, GMC Srinagar and I/C De-addiction Center IMHANS, gave a brief description about the current scenario of substance abuse at global, national and state level, with the focus on adolescents being the target population, risk factors and the consequences of drug addiction. He also highlighted about prevalence of substance use and dependance in JK UT with special focus on opioids.
While highlighting the importance of creating awareness among youth regarding drug abuse Principal of the college, Asmat Parveen deliberated on drug addiction scenario in Kashmir. She highlighted the different causes of drug addictions, prevention strategies of substance abuse and shared the data of use of substance/opioids in the country and in UT of J&K.
Substance use and young minds, opioids use and role of family in rehabilitation of drug addicts were also discussed during the programme. Earlier, Andleeb Yousuf from SMMCNMT welcomed all the participant during the inaugural session and Javaid Ahmad Mir from GMC Baramulla presented vote of thanks.

KR Desk