Udta Kashmir
News Kashmir Public Bureau
Taking cognizance of the drugs issue, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted resolution 42/112 on December 7, 1987. As per the resolution, it was decided that June 26 will be annually observed across the member countries as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Recently while marking this day all expressed concern on the rising rate of drug abuse in Kashmir especially among the youth.
Drug addiction is a world wide problem, and unfortunately Kashmir is emerging among its Hotspots.
Nearly 275 million people used drugs worldwide in 2020, up by 22 percent from 2010, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. It added that the number of cannabis users increased by nearly 18 percent between 2010 and 2020.
Last year, it was revealed that Jammu and Kashmir has six lakh people affected by drug-related issues and 90 per cent of the drug addicts belong to the age group of 17-33 years, according to an official report.
The report was released during the first meeting of the state-level committee of the Narco Coordination Centre chaired by Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta. He stated that the Union Territory has approximately 4.6 per cent of its population into substance abuse and called for formulation of an action plan for achieving concrete results on the drug menace front.
The worrying facet is emerging of heroin.
there has been a 340 per cent increase in the number of patients seeking treatment for Intravenous (IV) Heroin abuse.
Even the political and social spectrum of Kashmir is worried about rising drug menace .
National Conference (NC) few days back expressed concern over the collective failure of the government agencies in curbing the menace of drug abuse among Kashmiri youth.
In a statement party’s state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said that Kashmir is moving towards an unimaginable catastrophe with little to no attention being paid by the government to come up with a holistic approach towards stopping this growing menace.
. On the other hand of the spectrum, The survey carried by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of AIIMS reveals the severity of the problem. The study has placed J&K on 5th spot at national level and claims that over 6 lakh people in J&K are abusing drugs.
Expert pulse is that from students to elders all have a crucial role to play in the eradication towards drug abuse .
In this regard the students community too have a huge role to play against drug addiction.
the student community must shoulder the responsibility of raising community-level awareness against drug addiction.
The need of the hour is that all the stakeholders play crucial role in ending drug menace in Kashmir.
