Thousands of addicts treated, task is rehab: Govt

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 16

Three lakh addicts, mainly youths, have mustered the courage to say no to drugs. These youths have been treated at the five Model De-addiction Centres in the state and 25 other government-run de-addiction centres in the past six months.

Also, a large number of addicts in jails have been treated at the eight Model Central Jails in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda, Faridkot and Ferozepur. “At least 22,669 addicts have been treated in jails since June 19 when Punjab started a de-addiction campaign.

As of now, 461 jail inmates are undergoing de-toxification and 718 are in rehabilitation wards,” said Vikas Garg, Special Secretary, Health.

He said while more than three lakh addicts were treated at the de-addiction centres as outpatients, more than 10,000 had been admitted at various centres.

On the department’s next task, Garg said it would be rehabilitation of the patients. “We are in the process of setting up 22 rehabilitation centres across the state for which the support staff has already been recruited. “There has been great progress on the infrastructure front but the goal cannot be achieved unless the drug supply chain is snapped,” Garg said.

To provide de-addiction services at the primary level, 220 general duty medical officers had been trained by 25 master trainers who had beem imparted training by experts at the PGIMER, Chandigarh. For secondary services, 33 de-addiction centres had been set up.

Of these, 25 centres were functional. Garg said five 50-bed Model De-addiction Centres were coming up at Amritsar, Faridkot, Patiala, Bathinda and Jalandhar.

“The centres at Amritsar and Faridkot are fully functional. These model centres will work in close liaison with medical colleges to treat patients referred by primary and secondary level centres,” the officer explained.

The prime worry for the Health Department was the drug supply chain. Huge quantities of narcotics were reportedly being smuggled into Punjab from Pakistan.

“With the profit margin as high as 500 per cent, it is easy money for the carriers This kind of money has allured even youngsters belonging to well-off families,” Garg said.