‘Drugs’ claim 4 lives in Ferozepur village

Uneasy calm prevails following the death of four alleged “drug addicts”, all in their mid-twenties, within a of couple of days at Lakho Ke Behram village in Ferozepur.

Kulwant Singh, a villager, said, “ It has probably happened for the first time that four youths belonging to different families have died back to back in the village.”

While the villagers attributed the cause of deaths to prolonged drug addiction, the police officials maintained that two youngsters were bedridden for the past few months.

Over 8L pills seized

• The Ferozepur police seized 7 lakh tepantadol tablets and 1.18 lakh pregablin capsules from a medical agency on Thursday
• SSP Bhupinder Singh said they had adopted zero tolerance against drug abuse and instructions had been given to the Health Department to inspect medical shops
• The SSP said regular counselling of chronic drug addicts was being done with the help of NGOs, adding that many of them have quit drugs

Bajwa hits out at Mann govt

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• Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Partap Bajwa on Thursday slammed Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over his failure to curb drug menace in the state
• He said four young men in their mid-twenties died within 48 hours at Lakho Ke Behram village in Ferozepur and the villagers blamed it on drug addiction
• CM Mann's promise to make Punjab a drug-free state had once again been exposed as empty rhetoric, said Bajwa
• Citing the 2023 NCRB report, Bajwa said the state topped the country in drug smuggling cases, with 25.3 cases per lakh population and recorded the highest number of drug overdose deaths
• The report unmasked an ugly truth that the Aam Aadmi Party government can no longer ignore

Sources said all four of them had a long history of consuming drugs and had been admitted to de-addiction centres several times.

The deceased were identified as Sandeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, alias Rajan, Randeep Singh and Umed Singh, alias Umedu.

Rajan, one of the victims, reportedly injected himself with a “medicine” that he was supposed to consume orally on Wednesday morning. Though Umedu and Randeep had left consuming drugs, their health worsened over the period of time.

Sukhdeep Kaur, a panchayat member, said drug menace had destroyed several families. Despite strict measures taken by the police, pharmacy shops had been thriving in the area, she said. “I lost my son last year due to drugs. There are several families which are affected but sadly nothing is being done by the Health Department to regulate pharmacy shops,” said Sukhdeep. Bachittar Singh, father of deceased Rajan, said his son had been battling drug addiction for the past several years and fell prey to it.

Paramjit Singh, uncle of Rajan, said he had been consuming drugs for the past nine years and was admitted to de-addiction centres 10 times.

Umedu, another victim, had virtually sold off all his belongings to arrange money for drugs and ultimately landed into a debt trap. His parents had died long ago and his wife left him with their infant son due to his addiction.

Prakash Kaur, aunt of Umedu, said he was bedridden for the last several months, with no money for treatment.

Manjit Singh, SP (D), said there were some old chronic cases of drug addiction, who attempted to quit, but failed.

He said the police had been conducting counselling of such youths on a regular basis and even gets them admitted to de-addiction centres. He pointed out that they had registered 1,141 cases under the NDPS Act and arrested 1,419 suspects this year.

Manjit added that the police and the Health Department had been taking stern action against pharmacists selling psychotropic drugs.

Ironically, there’s no clinic at Lakho Ke Behram village with a population of around 4,500, but has seven pharmacy shops.