India: Thousands affected as Kashmir grapples with drug abuse, police begin major crackdown

Kashmir Valley, famously known as paradise on Earth, has become one of the top Indianstates fighting drug abuse.Thousands of syringes are being used to inject heroin in the Valley by drug abusers on a daily basis. While the government says most of the drugs are sent to Kashmir Valley from across the border, a massive crackdown on drug peddlers has also started across the Union Territory.

In a recent study, Kashmir Valley recently surpassed every other state in India to be among the top two states in the country with regard to drug abuse. And one of the most common drugs used here is Heroin. It was revealed in a study that Kashmir was at the number two slot as far as drug abuse was concerned as the region has left behind Punjab which was considered the hub till recently.

According to a top police official in the Union Territory, over 5,000 cases have been registered in the last few years against drug peddlers. The action is making a difference on the ground, but the drug mafia is so huge that it will take a lot of time for the administration to clean the mess.

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''If we talk about the prevalence, we did a survey last year in which we took samples from all the ten districts of Kashmir Valley. It was done in collaboration with the social welfare department and the Directorate of Health. In the survey, we found the prevalence was around 2.87 per cent and if you compare this to other states, we found it more than Punjab which was considered to be the hub of drug abuse. it equals to around 67000 people, and these were dependent on drugs and mostly on heroin. Which is very alarming and most of them were using injections, '' said Dr Yasir Rather, Professor, Incharge drug de-addiction centre, SMHS, GMC Srinagar.

However, experts say that the coordination between all stakeholders in the valley is showing results on the ground. Not only has the availability of drugs in the markets gone down, but the number of drug users seeking treatment has gone up. The de-addiction centres across the Valley are witnessing an increase in the number of abusers seeking treatment.

''The number of abusers seeking treatment has increased. It could be due to the awareness among people about these patients. There is word of mouth. We use oral substitution therapy which is very useful in heroin addicts. Treatment-seeking behaviours are changing and what we also found out from our patients is that there is a decrease in the availability of the drugs in the valley. Due to that, they think it's better to go for treatment and once the supply gets reduced there is an increase in the prices as well. Heroin was sold for 3000 per gm a few years ago and now the rates have gone up to 6000 per gm. This could be due to the decrease in the supply of heroin. On a daily basis, we see around 150-180 patients. From last year, there is coordination among various stakeholders and due to that there is sharing of information which led to curbing the trafficking and helped in overcoming the issue, '' said Dr Yasir Rather, Professor, Incharge drug de-addiction centre, SMHS, GMC Srinagar.

The study also revealed that huge money was involved in the drug industry of the Valley. Doctors say that Rs. 88,000 ($1,065) are being spent every month by each drug user involved in opiates.

The drug abusers in the Valley are seeing a change as well. They say that the drug availability in the market has gone down. The drugs previously were easily available in the Valley, but after the action by the police and administration, there has been a change on the ground. The rates for these drugs have also gone up.

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''I started in 2016, I had an accident and was at home and my friends used to visit me and they gave it to me. They didn't even know how to use it. But then we met some people who taught us how to use heroin. I was fully an addict by 2017. One day I went shopping with my fiancé and I started getting withdrawal symptoms. I was part of a bad friend circle, and they pushed me into this. I started from foil to injection. I used to work and had money. During Covid, the rates went up and the availability has been going down. It used to be available easily but now there is a curb. Now it's very difficult to find it. I have been in rehab for the last year. Two years ago, the drugs were available so easily but now it's very difficult. There is a code word called 'pant' the peddlers use to sell it to youngsters. Now it's hardly available. My parents were depressed, and I couldn't bear that and that's why I stopped, '' a drug abuser currently in rehab said.

The study has revealed that most of the drug abusers are in the age group of 17 and 33 and are mostly among the unemployed population. The most commonly used psychoactive substance was opioids among these abusers. The study also shows that in all ten districts, 67, 468 people have dependence patterns on psychoactive substances while 5,204 individuals among them were opioid dependent. Heroin was a predominant illicit drug that was used among opioid users.

Most of the drug abusers in the Valley say that the action needs to be taken against the peddlers and that is how the menace of Drugs could be curbed in the valley. According to them, if the abuser does not get the drugs, it will solve all the issues and they want action to be taken against the ones selling these drugs.

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''With me, I started with medicinal opiates, I shifted to brown sugar, then to heroin. I left a year ago. It was so easily available, especially in the outskirts of Srinagar and the area close to Sangam. Sometimes even girls would sell it to us. Finding the peddler is easy in Kashmir. Police do not keep them arrested for long. They generally arrest the abusers and not the peddlers. A gram of heroin was for 1200 a few years ago and now a gram is being sold for 7000 Indian rupees. People steal to get drugs. I had money and used to get it from that money. Availability is lesser now, but police should act against the peddlers and not the users first. I left for my mother as she went into depression due to me, '' said a drug abuser who is currently in rehab.

There are many deaths caused by the overdose of drugs in the Valley. It's been observed that 30 to 40 per cent of addicts suffer from overdose symptoms. The majority of overdose patients suffered from Hepatitis-C disease where the liver suffered intense damage.

The Jammu and Kashmir police have recovered Illicit drugs from various parts of the Union Territory worth crores of rupees in the last few months. The police have also said that most of the drugs supplied come from across the border, Pakistan. Many such consignments were recovered mostly in areas close to the Line of Control (LOC), like Kupwara and Uri. Also, a lot of these drug consignments were dropped via drones from across the International borders in different parts of Jammu.

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