SRINAGAR: Divisional Commissioner (Div Com) Kashmir, Anshul Garg, on Monday convened an urgent meeting to address the alarming issue of drug addiction & substance use by youth in the Valley.
The meeting was attended by the Director of Health Services, Kashmir; the HOD of Community Medicine, GMC Srinagar; CMO Srinagar, the Deputy Director of Health Services, Kashmir; the Deputy Director Planning, District Social Welfare Officer, the OSD to the Divisional Commissioner and other officers.
Taking serious note of the drug menace and stressing the need to curb its spread, Div Com called for a multi-pronged approach to address drug abuse through intensive regulation of the supply chain of Scheduled Drugs, monitoring of medical stores, regulation of private drug de-addiction centres, besides evaluation of the success rate of de-addiction centres & Alternate Treatment Facilities (ATFs).
Highlighting the requirement for the strict & tangible measures to curb the spread and use of prohibited substances, Div Com directed the constitution of the divisional committee to frame guidelines to address the menace.
He expressed serious concern over the increasing substance use, which destroys the lives of youth & social fabric in society.
He urged to destruction of the supply chain of banned substances to protect society, and also called for the de-linking of private drug stores from prescribing those drugs used for withdrawal symptoms of victims of the drug menace to curtail misuse of prescriptions.
