Time for action
By: Rafiq Makhdoomi
Jammu and Kashmir once known as land saints is turning into the land of ‘drug abusers’. Kashmir has taken over Punjab in drug addiction and the ugly reality of drug addiction hides beneath it a very bitter reality.
The Union Government has revealed a grim picture of the growing drug menace in Jammu and Kashmir, with over 1.12 lakh kilograms of narcotic drugs seized and nearly 10,000 individuals arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act since 2018.
Official data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) indicates a sharp escalation in drug seizures from 2018 to 2020, followed by a gradual decline in the years that followed.
In 2018, a total of 19,353 kilogrammes of narcotics were seized along with 87,713 units and nearly 8,000 litres of psychotropic substances. The number of arrests under the NDPS Act followed a similar trend. In 2018, 1,460 individuals were arrested, with the number rising to 1,884 in 2019.
Although there was a slight dip in 2020, arrests surged again in 2021 and reached a five-year high in 2022 with 3,453 people apprehended for narcotics-related offences. Meanwhile, the Drug Treatment Clinic at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) Kashmir reported 3,207 new registrations in 2021–22, followed by 3,334 in 2022–23.
The number dropped to 1,457 in 2023–24, and 1,389 patients were registered up to January 2025. In total, IMHANS Kashmir has treated 9,387 patients for drug addiction. While as the ministry reviled the addition statics. It also reviled the deaths due to drug addiction.
As per government statics which it reviled in the Lok Sabha that since 2018, at least 17 suicides have been linked to drug abuse and alcohol addiction in Jammu and Kashmir. The data underscores the depth of the crisis and the urgent need for a more robust, community-driven response to tackle addiction and its consequences.
The geographically placed and the sharing of boarders has made Kashmir a place where drugs are easily available. Making its way from Kupwara to whole Kashmir. Drug peddlers find it very easy to transport it from one place to another. I fail to understand how these peddlers get a Green corridor that they are able to reach to other districts, especially to Srinagar.
Drug addicts have their explanation of getting into drug addiction to becoming a drug dealer. For becoming a dealer a very common statement is given “It makes arrangements for my own consumption”.
One of the drug addicts in an interview to an independent news portal said he became a peddler, because he wanted to clean the system. He saw his friends using shoe polish, used sanitary pads, dirty socks and other things. He wanted them to use clean things, for him clean things include ‘heroin’.
So to make it easily available he became a peddler. We need to ponder over this and see how easy it is for our youth to fall prey to drugs and its peddling.
With addiction becoming a problem other problems like HIV, Hepatitis and other diseases are on the rise as well. Using of used injunctions is cause of HIV and other communicable diseases.
There are many cases where the drug addicts have even damaged their vital organs including kidneys. Besides, drug addiction is leading the youth to indulge in thefts and stanching.
The drugs these addicts use cost a fortune and to procure them for use the addict touches any level and even resorts to stealing from his home and even near and dear ones.
Drug addiction has ruined many happy families and has even made them forget how to smile. Drug addiction is costing our society a lot. Every indivisual who falls into the dragnet gets his entire family involved in this vicious circle and the end result is devastation for the entire family.
We have seen enough and the entire society has to rise up to counter this menace. The government and the law enforcing agencies are doing their job but their efforts will bear fruit once we too will collectively raise our voice and try to play our part in ending this menace.
We have to act today….tomorrow may be too late.
(The author is a law student)
