70% students in Kashmir drug addicts, claims DAK

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 19

Nearly 70 per cent schoolchildren, including 26 per cent girls, in Kashmir are drug addicts, claimed Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK).

The association said “unseen forces” were behind drug trafficking in Kashmir.

“As per a study, 65-70 per cent students in Kashmir are drug addicts, which also include gateway drugs. Around 26 per cent of the addicts are girl students,” said DAK president Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan.

Alarmed by unprecedented level of drug addiction, Dr Hassan said “unseen forces” were involved in peddling and promoting of drugs in Kashmir.

“They are using their touts and agents, who receive financial and material assistance for trafficking drugs,” he said.

Dr Hassan said youth, in particular, were being targeted and initially drugs were gifted to them till they become addicts.

“The menace of drug addiction, which has engulfed a vast majority of our population, is a wicked conspiracy to wipe out our hope and future,” he said.

Dr Hassan claimed that there was a strong network of drug peddlers, who made drugs available with fruit sellers, tea shops and gyms.

He said a survey by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme in 2008 showed that there were more than 70,000 drug addicts in Kashmir, including 4,000 women, and 70 per cent of addicts were in the age group of 18 to 35 years.

“Another study had earlier revealed that more than 2 lakh people were on opiates and these figures have increased manifold in the past eight years,” he said.