Srinagar, June 05, 2023 (PPI-OT): In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, drug addiction is becoming a serious worry, devastating the lives of young people with experts attributing the menace to the factors, including a shortage of jobs and mental health issues arising from living in a conflict zone, reported BBC News.

The BBC report quoted a survey conducted last year as having said, “.more than 52,000 people in Kashmir admitted to using heroin. On an average, a user spent around 88,000 rupees ($1,063.54; £860) a month to get the drug. The numbers are likely to be higher as many people may not admit to their addiction or seek help due to the stigma around drugs.”

Many of them were teens accompanied by their parents, waiting for their turn to receive medicines from the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS), the only rehabilitation centre in Kashmir. The medicines help reduce their withdrawal symptoms and prevent the transmission of infectious diseases. “Did you take heroin again?” a doctor asks a young man after examining the size of his pupils. “Yes, I couldn’t control myself,” he replies.

For the past over three decades, life in the Kashmir valley has been racked by conflict. Since 1989, the BBC report added, there has also been an uprising against Indian rule in Kashmir, costing tens of thousands of lives. The report mentioned that India’s action of bifurcating the occupied territory in 2019, further flared up tensions in the region.

“Now the region is staring at a new crisis: officials say drug addiction is becoming a serious worry in Kashmir, devastating the lives of young people. They also say there is a sharp rise in the consumption of hard drugs such as heroin.”

In March, nearly a million people in Jammu and Kashmir – around 8% of the region’s population – use drugs of some kind, including cannabis, opioids or sedatives. While there are no comparable figures from earlier, doctors say there is a surge in the number of patients.

“Until a decade ago, we used to see 10-15 cases of drug addiction per day at our hospital. Now we see 150-200 cases a day. This is alarming,” says Dr Yasir Rather, a psychiatrist and professor at IMHANS.

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