Kaisar Ahmad Malla
Kashmir, often called paradise on earth, is quietly battling a growing hell beneath the surface. Somewhere in the Valley, a mother waits sleepless, staring at the door her son no longer knocks on. Somewhere a father silently sells off his land to buy hope in the form of rehabilitation. A daughter hides in shame and a family drowns in silence. This is the reality of Kashmir’s growing drug crisis, a menace that no longer whispers from the dark alleys but screams from the heart of our homes, our schools and our hospitals.
The drug menace, once confined to whispers in back alleys, is now metastasizing through the bloodstream of our society. It has crept into every mohalla, school, home and even our hospitals. What used to be an occasional concern is now everyday news: someone, somewhere has been arrested in a narcotics case, heroin has been seized and a life has been lost to addiction. But behind the headlines and hashtags lies a much graver truth, our society is collapsing silently, one young life at a time.
A first-hand glimpse
During my posting at a drug de-addiction facility, I had the opportunity to witness this epidemic from the frontlines. What I saw was staggering: young boys barely out of adolescence, brought in by parents too ashamed to speak, broken patients with needle scars, families torn between despair and denial. Yet amid this chaos, there were also islands of hope, led by the relentless efforts of the psychiatry and de-addiction department, headed by Dr. Tajamul Hussain. I had the privilege of working with a dedicated team that included Syed Sameer and Farooq Ahmad, both Psychiatric Social Counsellors and Kifayat, a staff nurse at the de-addiction counter. Their quiet dedication, counselling expertise and empathy gave hundreds a fighting chance to walk back from the edge.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), over 60,000 people in J&K are struggling with drug addiction. More disturbingly, official data from 2023 estimates that nearly 1 million individuals, about 8-10 per cent of the population are affected by substance abuse. More than 50 per cent of these cases involve opioids, especially heroin. A report from the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) reveals that 33,000 syringes are used daily in the Valley. Even worse,72 per cent of intravenous drug users test positive for Hepatitis C, a sign of rampant needle sharing.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB),over 9,400 people have been arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the last four years.
When suspicion replaces compassion
The consequences of this drug epidemic are now affecting even routine medical care. It is heartbreaking to report that due to the widespread use of syringes for heroin abuse, there is an atmosphere of mistrust, even inside hospital premises. There have been incidents where attendants of critically ill patients are denied insulin syringes from medical shops, fearing they might be drug addicts. At times, patients in pain are refused emergency injections or other lifesaving drugs, simply because the request appears suspicious. Such refusals have, in some cases, led to life-threatening delays or near-death situations.
This is the most painful irony of the drug crisis, addiction has blurred the line between genuine need and potential misuse, and patients are paying the price.
We must expand de-addiction services, restore public trust in the health system and treat addicts with empathy instead of stigma. Combating this crisis requires not just law enforcement, but also healing, community support and above all-humanity. If we fail to act now, we would not just lose individuals, we will lose a generation and with it, the very soul of Kashmir.
(The author is government health worker-observer at ground zero. He can be reached at [email protected])
