Doctors raise alarm over drug abuse in schools

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 30

As the Valley is witnessing an increase in the number of schoolchildren falling prey to drugs, psychiatrists fear a Punjab-like situation here.

Of the 15 admissions of drug addicts at Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital, Srinagar, at least two are schoolstudents, say psychiatrists.

“We are increasingly seeing Class VI and VII students who are addicted to solvents such as Fevicol and glue. Most of these kids have started taking drugs from school,” said Dr Arshad Hussain, Associate Professor, Government Psychiatric Diseases Hospital. He said a majority of the drug addicts were from BPL families.

In June this year, the hospital admitted 27 drug addicts and eight of them were schoolchildren, Dr Arshad said.

Psychiatrists say the government should come up with a comprehensive policy on drug abuse before the situation turns worse.

They say the school authorities in Kashmir have confined cleanliness to dental health and ignored the behavioural problems faced by students. “Any action plan should be started from schools for better results,” said Dr Arshad.

Meanwhile, Director, School Education, Kashmir, Shah Faesal said he had issued directions to all schools to ban the students from carrying solvents such as glue.

Psychiatrists say that as parents and school authorities were not being vigilant, it was pushing students into drugs. They say drug addicts have been seen graduating from smoking tobacco to smoking cannabis, present in abundance in Kashmir.

“I strongly feel that the time to talk about it is over. We need to act under a comprehensive policy,” said Dr Arshad.

Last year, the drug deaddiction centre of the psychiatric diseases hospital received at least 4,000 drug addicts. Of them, 400 were suffering from severe psychiatric problems, he said.

In the past three years, drug abuse has changed from medical opoids to cannabis. “At least 70 per cent of the addicts are taking cannabis,” he said.

The United Nations International Drug Control Programme survey in 2008 showed that there were more than 70,000 drug addicts in Kashmir, including 4,000 women addicts.

The survey also revealed that 65 to 70 per cent of the student community in Kashmir was taking drugs and 26 per cent of female students had also fallen prey to drugs.