Various kinds of drugs seized from the drug peddlers arrested in the past few weeks have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) Kashmir to find out the possible Heroin content, police revealed on Tuesday.
The development comes after series of media reports that thedrug addicts in Kashmir were hooked to Heroin abuse. Many addicts after theirtreatment at the drug de-addiction centre revealed that Heroin was “just aphone call away.” Police recently claimed that it has widened the ambit tocrack whip on the drug peddlers involved in supplying and distribution of drugsamong the youth in Srinagar and elsewhere. However, police said it wasn’t sureabout the use of Heroin as there was no proof of the media reports.
“A wanted drug peddler has been arrested and booked underPublic Safety Act. A few more who are wanted as well will also be arrested.Besides, we have arrested many lower-rung drug peddlers as for us peddlers areour focus not the addicts,” senior superintendent of police (SSP) Srinagar, DrHasseb Mughal told Greater Kashmir.
He said that to deal with the addicts, it was the primaryresponsibility of the health department to counsel and to treat them. “Here wedon’t have any role,” the SSP said. “We have put in use the human and theelectronic surveillance to catch the drug peddlers who are involved insupplying and distributing the drugs among the youth in large quantity.”
The SSP said that police has set a target in each policestation in Srinagar where crackdown has been started on drug suppliers. Askedwhere from the Heroin was entering Kashmir, the SSP said in Srinagar it wasmore of a drug abuse and the addicts were consuming drugs easily available onthe shelves of medical stores. “And yes, there is also rising addiction ofopium and cannabis that is coming from South Kashmir parts into Srinagar,” hesaid.
On the use of Heroin among the youth, the Srinagar policechief said: “There is no substantial proof whether Heroin was really being usedby the addicts. Some claim it is coming from Punjab while some say it is comingfrom Afghanistan. To clear the doubts, we have sent the samples of variousvarieties of drugs to the FSL Kashmir to prove whether Heroin was really beingconsumed by addicts in Srinagar or elsewhere.” He said the FSL findings willclarify things in the days ahead.
Earlier, the SSP had stated that the police was in touchwith different states of the country to find missing links and to corroboratethe evidence of the drug trade in Kashmir.
Recently, the official data of the Shri Maharaja Hari SinghHospital (SMHS) Srinagar revealed that the number of out-door patients (OPD)treated for drug abuse was 46000 in 2018 while as the number was 12000 thisyear. The data had also stated that the number of indoor patients treated fordrug addiction had also shown an upward trend since 2014. A doctor had revealedthat out of the total number of patients treated at the facility in 2018, 88per cent were male and 12 per cent females.
“The females were found consuming anti-depressantsespecially Benzodiazepine,” he had said.