Srinagar’s Government Medical College has seen a 2000 per cent hike in heroin abuse cases in the last five years, News 18 reported.
In 2016, the Oral Substitution Therapy (OST) Centre at the Government Medical College in Srinagar reported 489 cases, In 2017 to 3,000, a growth of seven times than the previous year.. In 2019, the number climbed to 7,000 and crossed the 10,000 mark in 2021 with an overall 2,000% spike in the last five years.
Officials quoted by the report stated that the number of drug addicts in Jammu Kashmir is on a “scary constant rise”.
“What’s more worrying is that these patients range from across the socioeconomic classes, from different regions in Jammu Kashmir, and from the age group as young as ten to twelve years.”
The rising drug abuse particularly in such a younger generation has also left the doctors worried.
Dr. Fazal, a senior resident at OST Srinagar, who deals with such patients on a day-to-day basis, told News 18 that he has seen drug abuse patients as young as 10.
“Most of them give in due to peer pressure. Almost every patient we see narrates how they start with cannabis or alcohol and then move to pharmaceutical opioids and soon to heroin, all this even before they realize what’s approaching,” he said.
“Until 2010 we had only heard of mental health issues related to pharmaceutical opioid addiction in Jammu and Kashmir. Heroin cases started in 2012 but in 2016 we saw a massive boom. Since then, 95% of patients with addiction have been heroin users. The overall rise in the number of drug abuse patients is mammoth.
From less than 489 patients in 2016 at our centre, the number of patients grew to over 10,000 in 2021. This has left us all shocked and worried. What’s more worrying is that at least 35% of these patients in 2021 were students. Around 60%-70% of all patients suffer from critical illnesses like hepatitis B or C and even HIV in some cases,” Fazal said.
Arjumand Makhdoomi, activist and founder of Chotay Taray said he has come across cases where drugs were being consumed in schools. He said that the easy availability of drugs has added to the numbers.