Diplomat Correspondent
New Delhi, August 20: Sr. BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Gulam Ali Khatana on Wednesday raised concern over the rising drug menace in Jammu and Kashmir during the Special Mention in Parliament, describing it as a crisis that was “consuming the youth and weakening society from within.”
Khatana said an estimated 1.35 million people in the Union Territory—around 8% of the population—are victims of substance abuse, and pointed out that 90% of these users are young people between the ages of 17 and 33 years. The growing dependence on opioids, especially heroin, had created a serious health emergency, he said. “The situation is such that Hepatitis C prevalence among injecting drug users has reached nearly 20% due to shared needles,” the MP informed the House.
He stressed that enforcement agencies alone could not address the problem, which he described as a social epidemic requiring collective will. Khatana urged the government to encourage village-level anti-drug committees to counter the menace at the grassroots. These bodies, he suggested, should actively involve teachers, community leaders, religious figures, and women. “The role of women is crucial. All-women committees can help break stigma, spread awareness in families and support rehabilitation,” he said.
Highlighting the gaps in infrastructure, the BJP MP said Jammu and Kashmir lacked a comprehensive rehabilitation policy. While detoxification centres exist, the absence of structured follow-up often leads to relapse, leaving youth trapped in cycles of addiction. He pressed for the expansion of de-addiction centres, systematic post-recovery support, and skill development programmes to help rehabilitated individuals reintegrate into society with dignity.
Khatana emphasised that the drug problem was not only a law-and-order challenge but also a question of public health and community stability. He argued that sustained awareness campaigns, combined with grassroots mobilisation, were needed to save an entire generation from being lost to drugs.DD