The crisis has evolved from isolated use to systematic household penetration, with women now increasingly entangled in supply chains. We’re fighting drugs with seizures while the treatment centres we promised remain empty buildings. A comprehensive strategy, centred on timely treatment, gender-sensitive programmes, harm reduction, and technological surveillance, is essential to safeguard the region’s future.
By Dr Sami Ullah
Each of us is increasingly jolted by reports that disturb not only our conscience as residents of this land but also our responsibility as custodians of Jammu & Kashmir’s rich cultural heritage. With unsettling frequency, we encounter scenes of young people and elders alike engaged in hazardous behaviours under the influence of drugs, appearing as a stark reminder that this crisis is neither remote nor abstract, but is the one unfolding in our homes, streets, and communities. Emerging clinical records, law-enforcement data, and community testimonies converge on a sobering reality: consumption patterns in J&K have risen sharply over recent years, with leading experts identifying a statistically significant and troubling escalation. This evidence, while still demanding deeper, region-specific study, underscores the urgency of confronting addiction not as a marginal concern but as a central challenge to public health, social cohesion, economic vulnerability and the region’s future. In essence, drug abuse and addiction, though closely related, represent distinct dimensions of a larger continuum.
Substance use may at times remain episodic or social, whereas addiction is recognised as a chronic, relapsing condition characterised by compulsive seeking and consumption despite clear and adverse consequences. The prevailing ‘brain-disease’ model conceptualises addiction as a neurobiological disorder, marked by disruptions in reward circuitry, impaired impulse regulation, and maladaptive stress responses. However, this framework is not without contention as many scholars caution against reducing addiction to biology alone, emphasising instead its entanglement with personal choice, cultural context, and social meaning. Across these debates, one conclusion is consistent that addiction emerges at the critical intersection where biological vulnerabilities converge with toxic environments, producing a complex phenomenon that is simultaneously medical, psychological, and social.
In Jammu & Kashmir, this interaction is intensified by decades of conflict, persistent economic uncertainty, and entrenched social fragmentation. These conditions accelerate the trajectory from casual use to entrenched dependence, producing a spectrum of biological, psychological, economic, and social harms now etched into households, schools, and public spaces. Social media has further amplified this visibility, broadcasting raw, unfiltered moments that once remained confined to private spaces.
It may be noted that visibility is not synonymous with understanding. What we see are symptoms and distressing signals of a deeper and more complex crisis, but not carrying full explanation with it. On one side lies the stark display of despair and helplessness, and on the other side is a troubling trend of glamorization, where such incidents are trivialised or sensationalised, often in relation to the most potent and hazardous substances of abuse. This duality complicates both perception and response, underscoring the urgency of moving beyond surface-level impressions to structural analysis and evidence-based intervention.
Clinically, problematic use is identified when substance consumption results in significant impairments like neglected responsibilities, fractured relationships, mounting economic burdens, legal entanglements, declining health, and, in some cases, such deaths that are suspected to be an overdose. On the ground, this crisis makes no distinctions between boys and girls, men and women, adolescents and elders, all alike having been vulnerable. For some, the desire to break free exists, yet stigma binds them in silence and for others, the pull of addiction becomes an escape from harsh realities, offering fleeting relief at the cost of long-term deterioration. This universality dismantles simplistic moral judgments and compels responses rooted not in blame, but in science, empathy, and social repair. Holistic interventions, grounded in dignity and reintegration, are essential to rebuild fractured support systems and address the structural barriers that allow substance use to harden into entrenched addiction. Without such systemic transformation, the cycle of abuse will persist, deepening both individual suffering and collective loss.
As far as the war on substance abuse in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is concerned, security forces have made sustained efforts to dismantle trafficking networks, with regular reports of narcotic and psychotropic substance seizures now forming part of the news cycle. These seizures highlight not only the scale and persistence of the trade but also the vigilance of enforcement agencies. Despite this revelation, a troubling shift is emerging. Drug networks once dominated by men are increasingly drawing women into trafficking chains. The apprehension of female traffickers across multiple districts is not simply a law enforcement concern but reveals how deeply the drug economy has penetrated households and communities, thereby reshaping social roles and vulnerabilities. This trend also underscores a sobering reality that the consumer base of substances of abuse and addiction is not contracting but expanding, cutting across gendered boundaries and entrenching itself more firmly in the social fabric of J&K.
It is worth recalling here that to address both the demand and supply dimensions of substance abuse and addiction, the Government of India launched the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) with the stated aim of expanding treatment, rehabilitation, and reintegration opportunities. At its core, the scheme envisioned De-Addiction Centres (DDACs) as pivotal hubs to be equipped with such facilities to provide care, counselling, skill development, and employment assistance, while recognising that recovery requires more than detoxification. These centres were meant to function as scientific and social lifelines, designed not only to treat addiction but to restore dignity and reintegrate individuals back into their communities. Despite the launch of this scheme and the identification of twelve priority districts in Jammu & Kashmir for establishing DDACs through successive Expressions of Interest (EOI) notifications called by the MoSJ&E GoI, not a single centre has become operational. The apparent cause related to the non-functioning of these centres remains the prolonged non-release of advance Grant-in-Aid (GIA) by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJ&E), GoI. This inertia reflects a profound disconnect between policy formulation and implementation, reducing what was conceived as a national blueprint of recovery into a silent bureaucratic failure.
In the absence of DDAC functioning, the burden of care has shifted to Addiction Treatment Facilities (ATFs), which are already stretched to capacity and reporting a surge in cases. Without the holistic rehabilitation and reintegration frameworks that DDACs were designed to deliver, ATFs remain confined to offering symptomatic relief, inadvertently amplifying risks of relapse, chronic ill health, and fractured social reintegration. Meanwhile, district administrations in J&K continue to convene periodic reviews under the NCORD (Narco Coordination Centre) mechanism. However, these reviews are often limited to procedural updates on seizures, arrests, and awareness campaigns. The more critical dimensions that include: reducing stigma, ensuring community-based reintegration, and establishing sustainable pathways for recovery, altogether remain unaddressed. This policy-execution gap underscores a critical reality: while enforcement and surveillance are indispensable, they cannot substitute for healing infrastructures that rebuild lives.
Unless the envisioned DDACs are urgently operationalised, J&K risks squandering an invaluable opportunity to convert intent into impact. Failure to act decisively will only deepen vulnerabilities, thereby intensifying relapse cycles, reinforcing gender stigma, and perpetuating preventable overdose deaths, ensnaring yet another generation in the silent tide of addiction. Accordingly, keeping in view the demand and the vulnerabilities arising from routine confiscations of drugs in trafficking operations, the increasing involvement of females in trafficking chains, and the rapidly expanding consumer base, this article underscores the urgent need for a paradigm shift. Enforcement-heavy responses, while necessary, cannot by themselves stem the tide; what is needed is a balanced, community-centred strategy that prioritises timely treatment, rehabilitation, and overdose prevention while breaking the cycles of relapse.
Recognising the universal truth that recovery is as much about social reintegration as it is about medical care, the immediate operationalisation of the already identified De-Addiction Centres is imperative. These centres, when effectively integrated with counselling, skill development, and livelihood opportunities, can serve as genuine hubs of healing and reintegration. Only through such activation is it logically possible to keep the promise of national policy in moving beyond paper commitments to tangible outcomes, offering the people of Jammu & Kashmir a real chance at recovery, dignity, and hope. Against this backdrop, the following research-grounded interventional solutions must be urgently pressed into action:
Fast-track operationalisation of District De-Addiction Centres (DDACs)
The DDACs were envisioned as holistic hubs of recovery, offering structured counselling, participation in community-based activities, rehabilitation, and livelihood opportunities—all of which are indispensable to reducing addiction rates and preventing relapse. The Government of J&K must prioritise the immediate release of advance Grant-in-Aid (GIA) and fast-track approvals for the 12 already identified DDACs. With timely funding, these centres can be converted into functional pilots providing round-the-clock intake, medical detoxification, counselling, rehabilitation, and social reintegration services. To ensure seamless care, DDACs thereafter should also be integrated with existing Addiction Treatment Facilities (ATFs) through referral, follow-up, and outreach linkages. Since the NAPDDR has already prioritised DDACs, rapid activation is the only way to translate policy intent into tangible, on-ground capacity.
Establishment of gender-sensitive programs for prevention, protection and rehabilitation
With growing evidence of female involvement both as consumers of abused substances and as participants in trafficking chains, stigma acts as a powerful barrier that suppresses treatment-seeking among women. The J&K government must therefore prioritise the establishment of female-centric de-addiction centres and safe spaces within existing facilities. These centres should include women-only outreach teams, trauma-informed counselling, childcare support, and economic empowerment initiatives such as skill training and job placements. In addition, gender-responsive diversion programs should be introduced, ensuring that women arrested as small-scale distributors or coerced ‘mules’ are diverted towards treatment and rehabilitation rather than punitive prosecution. Global evidence confirms that women often enter supply chains due to coercion, poverty, or caregiving burdens, and gender-sensitive programming has successfully reduced re-victimisation and recidivism. Adopting such an approach in J&K will address the hidden female dimension of addiction and trafficking while strengthening community resilience against relapse cycles.
Scaling harm-reduction and overdose-prevention measures
Given the persistent seizures of narcotics and psychotropic substances that point to a rapidly expanding consumer base, it is imperative to strengthen harm-reduction frameworks alongside enforcement. On the pattern of Covid-19 surveillance, random community-level screenings, including in schools, colleges, and public spaces, etc, should be piloted to assess the prevalence and early onset of substance use. Simultaneously, community-based naloxone distribution must be rolled out with structured training for families, frontline health workers, police, and community leaders to enable timely overdose reversal. Opioid Agonist Therapy (OAT) programs at existing ATFs should be expanded with low-threshold enrolment and flexible take-home options where clinically safe. Where legally and institutionally feasible, supervised consumption and safer-use counselling pilots should be introduced and rigorously monitored to generate evidence for context-specific policy adaptation. Global research demonstrates that harm-reduction services reduce overdose mortality, stabilise high-risk users, and create an entry point for sustained rehabilitation. Embedding these services into J&K’s addiction response framework will shift the focus from short-term enforcement to long-term survival, stabilisation, and recovery.
Deploying mobile treatment and outreach units to bridge geographic gaps
Jammu & Kashmir’s unique geography, characterised by mountainous terrains, dispersed settlements, and conflict-affected zones, creates formidable barriers to accessing addiction treatment. To close these gaps, the Government should deploy mobile treatment units staffed by psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, social workers, and peer counsellors on scheduled circuits across underserved districts. These mobile teams would not only deliver screening, counselling, and medication-assisted therapy but also serve as real-time observatories, documenting ground realities of abuse and addiction patterns otherwise hidden from formal reporting channels. Where in-person access remains constrained, telemedicine platforms should be systematically integrated to provide follow-up care, medication management, and psychosocial support. Such a hybrid model is particularly crucial for individuals residing far from Addiction Treatment Facilities (ATFs) or awaiting rehabilitation in yet-to-be-operationalised DDACs.
International best practices indicate that mobile addiction services reduce underreporting, expand treatment coverage, and significantly shorten delays between problem recognition and care initiation. In J&K’s context, this approach would democratize access to services, ensure continuity of care, mitigate the risk of untreated addiction escalating into chronic dependency and preventable mortality.
Community engagement, stigma reduction and anonymous pathways to care
No addiction response can succeed without confronting the pervasive stigma that silences individuals and families from seeking help. In Jammu & Kashmir, where cultural norms, social scrutiny, and fear of legal repercussions often prevent disclosure, community engagement must form the cornerstone of intervention. The government, in collaboration with NGO/civil society/voluntary organisations, etc should launch sustained, evidence-based destigmatisation campaigns across schools, colleges, mosques, temples, and social media platforms. These campaigns should be co-designed with community leaders, teachers, faith representatives, and, critically, the recovered persons whose lived experiences can dismantle stereotypes and foster trust.
Parallel to this, innovative mechanisms such as anonymous helplines, WhatsApp-based intake systems, and confidential referral pathways must be established to lower the barriers to help-seeking. Training of faith leaders, teachers, and frontline workers as ‘first-responders’ for early identification, referral, and psychosocial support will further embed addiction care within trusted community structures. Evidence from global public health models suggests that anonymity, peer-led engagement, and trusted messengers substantially increase treatment uptake while reducing shame and social isolation. In the context of J&K, where stigma is one of the most formidable obstacles, such interventions could open pathways to timely treatment, reintegration, and long-term recovery.
Strengthening forensic toxicology and AI-driven surveillance to track the evolving threat
Understanding and responding to the shifting landscape of substance abuse requires robust forensic and technological capacity. With the rapid emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) and synthetic opioids, delays in detection can translate into preventable deaths and missed opportunities for intervention. To mitigate this, the Government should prioritise investment in modern forensic toxicology laboratories with advanced analytical capabilities, alongside the provision of rapid testing kits at police stations, emergency departments, and addiction treatment facilities. This would enable the timely identification of novel substances and faster clinical responses. Complementing forensic science, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools is vital for monitoring dark-web marketplaces, tracking social media signals, and analysing seizure metadata to anticipate emerging supply routes and hotspots. A joint Forensic – Public Health Dashboard linked with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), NAPDDR and Health departments could facilitate real-time intelligence sharing, generate early-warning alerts, and support evidence-based decision-making.
To be continued………………..
About the writer
Dr Sami Ullah is Co-founder and Chairman of the RADISAT Foundation, which was allotted rent-free space by the District Magistrate Shopian to establish a Drug De-Addiction Centre under the NAPDDR scheme. The project awaits Grant-in-Aid sanction from the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, GoI. The said foundation works for public health advocacy at the intersection of forensic science, law, addiction recovery and grassroots intervention.
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