Drug deaths in Punjab

Drug addiction remains an unresolved issue in Punjab, despite the intervention at various levels by the government and voluntary organisations. The spate of deaths attributed to drug abuse in Bathinda district in the recent past is a scary reminder of the scale of the menace, and the apparent ineffectiveness and limited scope of the measures put in place to deal with the crisis. In the Chief Minister’s ancestral village Mehraj, though, the drug-related deaths of two brothers, both below 30, and reports of widespread addiction in the area point to the absence of any control mechanisms, and unhindered patronage to the peddlers and handlers. The spotlight is back on the dealer-politician-police nexus.

There will be an announcement soon of a crackdown in the district. Since it is the election year, the action taken report is bound to be more substantive and text-heavy. The deaths of these young people would in all likelihood be used to train guns at those in power, indulge in disparaging verbal crossfire, let the matter hog news space for a few days and then allow a quiet burial before another tragedy strikes. Politics casts its shadow over the drug abuse crisis in the state, with little or no space for any admission of failure of policy, discussions of the ground reality, or constructive inputs on how to go forward. An issue layered with social, economic, administrative and mental health factors is reduced to and seen only through the political prism, with the result that no one is the wiser, or held accountable.

The distraught father, who had no inkling that his now deceased boys had been taking drugs, has a message that could not be more clear in content and intent: ‘I do not want any compensation. I just want that no other parent should bear such loss due to drugs. Just curb this menace.’ There are no quick-fix solutions, but if the governments have let Punjab down, its people, too, do not have much to show by way of their involvement or interest in dealing with the crisis. Public pressure rides on the back of community participation. That’s what drives change, and has been missing.