Tarigami for united fight against drug addiction
Srinagar: While expressing serious concern over the media reports about steep rise in drug addiction in Kashmir, CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami Thursday appealed called for collective efforts against the menace.
Tarigami asked society as whole to “wake up from slumber to counter this menace which is destroying our young generation”.
Kashmir has been through the three decades of turmoil that resulted in increase in psychosocial disturbances. According to experts most numbers of drug addiction cases belong to a very young generation which is not only unfortunate, but disastrous for the society,” he said in a statement.
Tarigami said that the grim picture of drug abuse in the Kashmir has put a lot of challenges for the people of the valley in general and for Government agencies, Non-Governmental Organisations in particular.
“The biggest challenge is the illegal trafficking and sale of drugs within the valley to which police and civil society have an important role to play.”
He said the law enforcing agencies, media, civil society, traders, students, teachers and everyone needed to join hand and eradicate the drug abuse menace from the society.
Tarigami said a drug to which a person becomes addicted to does not merely impair his cognitive skills and behavior but also permanently damage certain abilities depending on the amount of a dose.
In addition to the impairment of brain, drug addiction also makes people vulnerable to other health risks, he said.
Although the J&K Police had taken an initiative by conducting awareness programs in different areas, Tarigami said that more work needed to be done to eliminate the menace.
“There are reports that some elements within law enforcing agencies are hand-in-glove with the drug dealers. They need to be identified, isolated and finally punished according to the law,” he said.
CPI (M) leader said that government must launch measures aimed at mitigating, and possibly eliminating, drug use by 2020.
He said the limited facilities available for rehabilitation of drug addicts were another challenge in fight against drug addiction.
More drug de addiction centres are needed to rehabilitate the victims, he said.
“Government Agencies, Educational institutes NGO’s and other social work institutes need to educate people especially young generation about this problem. The awareness on the part of parents and caretakers is also an issue to tackle so that they can detect this problem as early as possible and they can provide immediate help to the person,” he added.
KV News
