Drug menace on decline

It seems that the efforts of youth organizations, NGOs working in heath sector have started delivering results as the number of drug users and drug peddlers has come down considerably in Mizoram.

Not so long ago, influential Young Mizo Association (YMA) with the support of Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), the largest student NGO in the state, declared a ''war against drugs''. Since then the State has seen encouraging results.

Although the problem has not yet been fully eradicated, the state has been cleared of the disgraceful sights of drug sale and addicts, claimed Dartha Kunga, a counsellor with Society of HIV/AIDS and Lifeline Operation in Mizoram (SHALOM).
Acording to SHALOM an average of 100 addicts used to come in its drop-in-centre last year, but the number of visitors has dropped by around 70 per cent during the ongoing year.The average number of visitors has also dropped in its main
office at Zarkwat. It was between 30 to 50 persons the previous year. The number has now decreased to around 20 to 30 each day.
Another NGO which is fighting the menace since 2000 and running a free herbal detoxification and rehabilitation centre, the Bethany health and drug rehabilitation centre claims that ''Now-a-days, the addicts are educated better so that they do not
try the stuff again and then they also have started educating the other drug addicts once they go out of the camp. This is also one of the reasons why number of addicts have come down in the State.'' the centre's director Sister Reshma said. Director of the Centre Sister Reshma informed that one of the most commonly used drugs was spasmo-proxyvon, which was actually a prescription painkiller and opiate, and was mostly in adulterated form.

Meanwhile, in another decision which will have far reaching consequences, United Nations has sponsored to set up the country's first permanent women counselling centres in theremote villages of Mizoram to add strength to the drug eradication mission a coordinated effort to increase capacities and reduce vulnerability of young women to HIV/AIDS. In Mizoram, nearly four per cent of women are addicted. The counselling centres have already started functioning in more than 300 villages including Aizawl, Champhai, Mamit, Kolasib and Serchhip districts in the State under the Coordinated HIV/AIDS Response through Capacity building and Awareness (CHARCA) project. However, these figures are getting reduced day by day due to our peer educators' extensive campaign of distributing condoms and exchanging syringes and needles.

On the other hand the State Government is also not sitting idle. Excise officials have also joined hands with NGO volunteers in controlling the drug and alcohol sales throughout the State.More than ten lakh proxyvon tablets were seized and destroyed during the last couple of months which were smuggled in from the neighbouring states of Assam and Tripura inside vegetables and in various consumer products. This year drug related deaths numbered 18 as compared to last years 140, sources revealed.

The Mizoram drug and medical shop owners association said they have already come out with a resolution not to sell any tablets without proper prescription.

|  Headlines  |  Editorial   | From Other Publications  |
|  Travel Column   |   News Briefs  |
| OT Main Page | Nena  Home Page  |