No check, private drug de-addiction centres mushroom in state

Lalit Mohan

The first floor of a nondescript building, located just 500 m away from the Una mini-secretariat, serves as a drug de-addiction centre. An XUV has been parked outside and shops at the ground floor are shut. An iron gate on the stairs to the first floor is locked from inside. On ringing the bell, a person inquires about our whereabouts. Just as the stairs end, a black Labrador is waiting to pounce at the unwelcome guests. We sneak past him on the assurance of one of the staff members and enter the room of a person, who manages the drug de-addiction centre. The place is shrouded in mystery.

While the youth are slipping into the vicious cycle of drug abuse, several drug de-addiction centres like these, being run privately, are thriving in the state. 

Though the Health Department officials maintain there are just 14 private drug de-addiction centres, sources said there were 38 of these in Una district alone. 

Sources also said about 40 private centres are running in various parts of Kangra district as well.

Each such centre charges anything between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 per month from the parents of drug addicts, who come here to get treatment for their children. They leave them at these centres, as they are unable to handle their temperament at home. The centres offer programmes ranging from six months to one year to bring the youth out from drug addiction.

Sandeep Raizada, a local from Una who runs Nav Jivan Care Centre for drug addicts, said: “We are treating 35 drug addicts at the centre. While some of the drug addicts are from Punjab, a majority of them are from Himachal. Nearly 15 addicts getting treatment at the centre are from Baddi and five from Una and Hamirpur and the rest from Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana districts of Punjab.”

He said most of the inmates were addicted to cannabis, heroin (chitta) and a few of them were alcoholics. He said parents approach them to help their children in leaving drugs. “Sometimes they ask us to come and take the addicts to the centre. The course for a drug addict runs for about six months. During this time, we make them do yoga and give medication under the guidance of psychiatrists. We keep the local administration and health officials in loop and abreast with our activities. Sometimes, they also send patients to us. Apart from drug addicts, we have treated alcoholic cops as well on the recommendation of senior police officials,” Raizada said.

He said he was himself an addict. “I remained an addict for about seven years. I treated myself and now, I am helping others in coming out of this situation. Though my family is now settled in UK, I chose to stay back and help addicts,” he said.

Expressing concern about the increasing use of synthetic drugs in the area, Raizada claimed that about seven people have died due to ‘chitta’ in Una district alone. “Recently, a couple brought a 13-old-boy from Anandpur Sahib area of Punjab to us for treatment, as he had taken to synthetic drugs,” he said.

Manish, a resident of Uttarakhand, who runs the centre in partnership with Raizada, said: “Most of the children who have taken to synthetic drugs in Himachal are those who go to other states for coaching or studies. They are exposed to synthetic drugs and when they return, they generate a demand in the state.”

He said: “Though heroin, a synthetic drug, is more harmful, its addicts can be treated and they come out of addiction. However, those addicted to cannabis are very difficult to treat. Cannabis destroys the brain cells and its addicts find it very difficult to leave their addiction.”  

He said alcoholics were also difficult to treat, as alcohol was easily available and socially acceptable.

No government centre to treat addicts 

In the absence of any government centre for treating drug addicts, private centres are mushrooming and making profit. Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Kangra Dr GD Gupta said: “Drug de-addiction centres are only being run by the district Red Cross Society at Dharamsala and Nurpur of Kangra district. We have no information about private drug de-addiction centres, as they don’t have to register with us. They directly register with the Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment,” he said, adding: “We have now trained four MBBS doctors to provide treatment at a drug de-addiction centre and they will give advice to drug addicts in different parts of the state at Out Door Patient Departments (OPDs).

CMO, Una, Dr Raman Sharma said: “We are running a drug de-addiction centre at Una Regional Hospital. Most of the privately run drug de-addiction centres in the district admit more patients than the facilities available with them. We have asked Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) running these centres to provide better facilities, pending which we will write to the district administration to close down these centres.”

No centres for women  

Though drug addiction is crossing gender boundaries and more female addicts are being reported from within and outside the state, there is no centre to cater to women drug addicts in the entire region.

Raizada said no private or government centres in the region takes in female addicts, as the norms for keeping them were stricter. The centre has to have an all-female staff for female addicts. Most of the parents send female addicts to Delhi or Bengaluru for drug de-addiction, he said.

Private centres in dock

There are reports that some private de-addiction centres use brutal methods such as chaining addicts to beds or thrashing them to control violent drug addicts. In 2014, Rajinder Singh, a drug addict from Moga, was beaten to death by the workers of a person running a private drug de-addiction centre in Indora area of Kangra district. After this incident, the state government had ordered a crackdown on private de-addiction centres. 

However, owing to the demand over increasing drug addicts in Himachal and Punjab, private drug de-addiction centres have once again mushroomed in the border districts of Una and Kangra. Sources said the numbers of private drug de-addiction centres are only increasing in Himachal, as the norms for opening such centres were stricter in Punjab and the increasing number of local addicts.

The state government has brought in harsher law to curb drug peddling in the state. However, in the absence of any infrastructure available at the ground level, it remains to be seen how the government will address this problem, which has spread its tentacles deep and affected a considerable number of the youth in the state. 

I was an addict for about seven years. I got myself treated and now, I am helping others in coming out of this situation. Though my family is now settled in the UK, I chose to stay back and help addicts. We are treating 35 addicts at the centre. While some are from Punjab, a majority of them are from Himachal. Nearly 15 addicts getting treatment at the centre are from Baddi and five from Una and Hamirpur and the rest from Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Ludhiana districts of Punjab. Sandeep Raizada, Runs Nav Jivan Care Centre for addicts in Una

Drug de-addiction centres are being run by the district Red Cross Society only at Dharamsala and Nurpur of Kangra district. We have no information about private drug de-addiction centres, as they don’t have to register with us. They directly register with the Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment. We have now trained four MBBS doctors to provide treatment at de-addiction centres and they will reach out to drug addicts in different parts of the state at Outdoor Patient Departments (OPDs). Dr GD Gupta, CMO, Kangra