Handle addicts well, else we will lose faith: Cops to docs

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 18

Almost a fortnight since social activists and police personnel have started bringing in more addicts at government de-addiction centres, psychiatrists are perhaps not prepared to take as much load.

The administration and the police now apprehend that due to lack of proper and timely response coming from experts at hospitals, the ongoing movement for de-addiction could even boomerang on them. Since there are only four government psychiatrists and 60 beds available in the district as of now, most addicts are being told to return home after taking medicines. The issues came up in a meeting of the administrative, police and medical officials held at the District Administrative Complex this evening.

But SHOs insist that the move of government medical officials was not acceptable to most parents, who insisted that the youth be sent home only after a minimum 10 days of admission as they could not be controlled from taking drugs once they are back.

SHO Police Station 6, Onkar Singh, said: “The movement seems to have got started on the ground. Even on Wednesday, there was a man, who brought his son with him and asked me to take him for de-addiction. But addicts and their families whom we are sending to the hospital are not getting a proper response. They revert and tell us that they had been sent back after a single dose. They are expecting admission for at least 10 days. If we do not cater to this movement the right way, we will be in a big trouble. We may even lose faith of the public.”

SHO, Sadar police station, Vimal Kant, said: “I do not think this system of giving medicine daily at the hospital will be successful. Now that we are sending addicts to hospitals and they are not getting a positive response and proper treatment, we will surely be at the receiving end sooner or later. Since the hospitals are 5 to 7 km away from home and patients are required to visit them daily for taking the dose, they are required to spend a good amount of money for commuting, which might not be possible in the long run.”

Hearing the response, Police Commissioner Praveen Sinha told the SHOs present in the meeting that “Please do not get into any race of getting more patients admitted. Let us handle it at the pace our specialists can do. Do not make any commitments to families of the addict that one will be admitted for sure. Leave that part for the psychiatrist concerned to decide. Loss of credibility of the police is a big issue and we need to handle the campaign meticulously and intelligently.”

While talking to health officials he said: “Please increase your abilities to handle more patients in a day. Also work out on the possibility of providing daily dose to the addicts at the nearest health centres. Please ensure that the addicts and their kin are counselled well and in time when they visit the hospital. It is not easy to bring addicts to the hospital and if we disappoint him once, he might not get convinced to return again.”

Meanwhile, it was decided that the first massive public contact drive under the Drug Abuse Prevention Officer (DAPO) scheme would be held by DC Varinder Kumar Sharma and the Police Commissioner on Saturday.

Sinha told supervisory officers, including college principals and officials of various departments attached with each SHO, not to act as informers but as reformers, leaving the first task with the local police. “By becoming informers, you will lose faith,” he said.