Police Responsible for Rise in Drug Abuse in J&K: Health Minister Chowdhary Lal Singh

Chowdhary Lal Singh, the state Health Minister, has accused the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) police of facilitating drug abuse in the state.

He was speaking in the state Legislative Assembly in response to the recommendations of various lawmakers on how to curb drug menace in the state.

Drug Abuse | Drug Addiction | Substance Abuse - Overview
The use of Drugs for reasons other than its prescribed recommendation, is known as Drug abuse or substance abuse. Drug abuse or substance abuse is initiated by various biological and social factors.

“Police is responsible for increasing drug menace in the state. Police know the source of drugs, but they (policemen) save them. These police men are taking money from drug dealers and our drug control department is not able to do anything,” the Health Minister said.

K. Rajendra, the head of the state police, was present in the officer’s gallery when the minister made the dramatic claim in the House.

Singh commented that if the police supported the Health Department officials, the state could have stopped the rise of drug abuse to a great extent.

“If the Drug Control Department has to raid any drug-store, the SSPs, SHOs from whom we seek protection during the time of the raid since we don’t have own force available, these (police officers) inform drug dealers prior to the raid as they are hand in glove with each other,” Singh said.

Singh said the heavy use of drugs was not connected to unemployment and poverty in the state.

Impact of Drug Abuse on Health and Society
Drug abuse is a negative social trend that pushes youth to drug addiction in the pretext of getting psychological effects like excitation.

“There is no poverty in J&K. Youth who take drugs spend Rs 2000 on one drug dose. I have seen how Class 9th, 10th students are increasingly becoming habitual of taking drugs and then spread to others when they go to colleges.”

Drug Abuse in Pregnancy
Drug abuse during pregnancy has an adverse effect on the mother as well as the fetus. It is advisable to stop usage of illicit drugs well before pregnancy.

Source-Medindia