Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): In the valley of Kashmir, where the lives of thousands of youth are being ruined due to drug addiction, it will now be a common thing for the drug addicts to take heroin in the form of injection, as a result of which now every third drug addicted youth is suffering from hepatitis C, a recent survey has revealed.
The recent survey has been conducted by the Kashmir's Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences of all the ten districts of the valley. Apart from other results, it was also found in the study that those who consume heroin and ganja spend an average of Rs 88,000 every month. This is because the price of one gram of heroin ranges from Rs 5,000-6000.
Also read: Kashmir valley reports steep rise in drug abuse
The increase in the number of drug addicts can also be gauged from the fact that every day 10 to 15 new drug addicts are taken to hospital for treatment, out of which the youth are more in number, who use brown sugar and heroin, the study revealed. The survey has revealed that now Jammu and Kashmir has left Punjab behind with regard to drug addiction.
More than 10 lakh people in Jammu and Kashmir are addicted to drugs, which includes more than one lakh women, said the IMHANS study. A young man who came to get rid of drug addiction at GMC Srinagar's Drug Deaddiction Center said that initially his friends gave him free drugs but when he got addicted, he spent Rs 20 lakh on heroin so far.
An official said that from March 2022 to March 2023, more than 41 thousand drug-addicted youth, including women, were treated at GMC's Drug Addiction Center. Dr. Yaser Rather, in-charge of the center, said that due to sharing of needles while injecting heroin, the livers of drug addicts are getting affected by the disease of Hepatitis, while the possibility of HIV still remains.
