Punjab drug addiction: Minister dismisses Aiims report, says issue media creation

“Over 16 percent of Punjab’s population is addicted to hard drugs,” said an affidavit submitted by Harjit Singh, secretary of the State’s Department of Social Security and Women and Child Development, citing a departmental survey in reply to a petition filed by some drug rehabilitation centres before the Punjab and Haryana High Court in May 2009. Back in February, Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said, “Out of the 2.77 crore population of the state, only 0.06 percent was found abusing drugs, which is the lowest percentage across the nation. Badal, quite clearly, misquoted 16 percent as 0.06 percent. With the Punjab Assembly Election looming ahead, the state’s drug problem has become a major poll plank. While the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government has been playing down extent of the problem, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, who is hoping to score big in the Assembly election, said Punjab once known for its “lush green farms and beauty, is now popular for drug abuse.”  Around 2,30,000 people in Punjab are opiod-dependent (heroin, morphine, synthetic drugs or products of the opium plant) revealed a 2015 study conducted by the Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses, an NGO, in collaboration with the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Aiims). Now, it’s Vijay Sampla’s, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, turn to call the study an exaggerated assessment of Punjab’s drug problem. Sampla told The Indian Express that the report is not authentic and that compared to Punjab, the numbers are way higher in other states. Though the study was commissioned by the ministry, Sampla said that another “proper nation-wide survey” will be conducted. The 2015 study “ was not about all drugs , but just one type of drug—opioids, which means products of the opium plant, such as heroin and morphine, or synthetic drugs, which affect the body like opium”, said lead investigator Atul Ambekar, additional professor at Aiims.

Punjab Opioid Dependence Survey: Key findings

To arrive at the number of opioid addicts, the investigators of the Punjab Opioid Dependence Survey 2015 interviewed 3,620 opioid addicts in 10 of 22 districts of the state, home to 60% Punjab’s people. A key question put to each user in the sample was: Did you check into a treatment centre in your district in 2014?

Only 1.8% of the sample answered “yes”, while the actual admissions for treatment in those 10 districts were 2,414 in 2014. This yielded a figure of 134,000 opioid addicts for the 10 districts and 232,000 for the entire state.

Some key findings of the profile of opioid-addicts in Punjab:

• 76% are in the age group of 18 to 35 years
• 99% are males, 54% are married
• 89% are literate and have some degree of formal education
• Only 27% are unskilled workers, 21% farmers, 15% businessmen, 14% transport workers, 13% skilled workers
• 56% belong to rural areas
• 53% are addicted to heroin, 33% to opium/doda/phukki, 14% to pharmaceutical opioids
• 75% got hooked on due to peer influence
• 29% inject drugs, of these 90% inject heroin

The study interviewed a sample of 3,620 opioid-dependent people to estimate that Punjab has 232,000 opioid-dependents. It also said there may be up to 860,000 opioid users in the state though this was not a stated aim. A source told Firstpost’s Shishir Tripathi, “If you extrapolate the number of opioid-dependent people that the report projects, which is 2.3 lakh persons, you will come across some very disturbing trends. 76 percent of the total users are in the age group of 18-35. That makes for around 1,74, 800 male users in age group 18-35. If you project it for the entire state then nearly 15 out of 100 male in the age group 18-35 take opioid and 4 out of 100 are addicted to it.” Sampla argued that the sample size taken for the study was small and added that drug abuse is not just Punjab problems, but prevalent in Mumbai, Goa and Himachal Pradesh. He went on to say that the state is being maligned and the issue is “the creation of the media.” The study also involved asking psychiatrists and agencies offering de-addiction services in Punjab about their case load; 80 individuals and 80 agencies participated. “One in four patients seen by the participating professionals and agencies was opioid-dependent,” said Amedkar. “Clearly, opioid dependency is putting a disproportionate burden on mental health services.”