Jahangeer Ganaie
Srinagar, Oct 17: Tobacco is the gateway for all the addictions and unitedly we must fight the menace of drug addiction, Director Health Services Kashmir Dr Mushtaq Ahmed Rather said on Monday.
While talking to reporters on the sidelines of a state level workshop on tobacco control and drug de addiction at Hotel Management, Rajbagh here, Dr Mushtaq said that the aim of organising this programme is to talk about the drug addiction menace and make people aware about its ill effects.
He said that tobacco is the gateway for all other addictions as all addictions start from smoking and slowly he ends up taking heroin and IV drugs.
He said that we shouldn’t neglect small things like smoking and unitedly whosoever is in our society has to play a role to curb the menace starting from smoking to IV drugs.
As per our study, 70,000 drug addicts were seen and among them 50,000 were IV drug users which is very dangerous as HIV, hepatitis and other diseases are common among IV drug users, he said.
He urged all officials of all levels to play their role in curbing this menace besides that Mohalla committees and parents must play role by keeping tight vigil on their kins so that they won’t go towards addictions and save their lives.
