Ludhiana, May 1
“Drug addiction is a disease. It does not affect only an individual, but his entire family gets affected. Later, its effect can be seen on entire society. People should treat it as any other disease”, said Mr Sarabjit Singh, director of Social and Health Directorate functioning under the aegis of the Guru Gobind Singh Study Circle, an NGO.

According to him, a need was felt to start a drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centre, thus Aas Kiran came into existence about two-and-a-half year ago with Mr Jasbbir Singh as its project director. Aas Kiran has received 550 cases so far.

Dr Deepinder Singh, Medical Officer, Aas Kiran, said “Our success rate has been 50 per cent. Relapse is a part of recovery. We learn from our past experiences. We have three-week programme for de-addiction and rehabilitation. Persons coming from rural areas are generally addicted to poppy husk and those from urban areas are generally addicted to smack, opium and marijuana. No one wants to become a drug addict. They just try drugs for out of curiosity, under peer-group pressure or for experimentation. By the time they realise their mistake, it is too late”.

Dr Deepinder said, “Drugs can be divided into two categories — legal and illegal. Legal drugs are alcohol, tobacco, capsules, tablets, and cough syrups. Illegal drugs comprise marijuana, poppy husk, opium and smack. In many schools and even girls’ college hostels a large number of empty cough syrup bottles can be found. Since illegal drugs are expensive, the drug users later become drug peddlers and vicious cycle enlarges. Tobacco is called ‘gateway drug’. The user then graduates to alcohol, cough syrups and finally illegal drugs.”

According to Dr Deepinder, 20 per cent dependence on drugs is physical and 80 per cent is mental. Patients at Aas Kiran are told how to manage stress. Individual counselling helps a lot. Daily yoga sessions, path of Sukhmani Sahib and indoor games help them to relax.

“We try to re-organise their lives. When they come to the centre their morale is very low and their self-esteem dipped. Society and parents should recognise that drug addiction is like any other disease. The parents generally curse their children, whereas they need love and understanding. Members of society should pitch in and work as voluntary counsellors,” he said.

“Aas Kiran plans to set up ‘Halfway Homes’ where addicts on road of recovery will be taught certain skills so that they could earn their bread”, he added.

Ludhiana Tribune interviewed a smack addict, Vijay, (name changed). He took to drug due to peer-group pressure. He said that he felt more human after leaving drugs though he was still suffering from excruciating pain as withdrawal symptom. “Life is beautiful and not meant to be spent in stupor after chasing smack”, he said.