Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

Drug abuse high in Vizag district

VISAKHAPATNAM: The State has recorded the highest number of cases of habit-forming drugs in the country and Visakhapatnam district, including the city, has the highest number of such cases in the State.

To control the menace, Director-General Drugs and Copy Right, Drugs Control Administration R.P. Meena recently instructed all drug control officers of the State to intensify the operations against drug peddlers, Drugs Inspector and Licensing Authority of Drugs Control Authority R. Uday Bhaskar said on the eve of International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking.

It was observed that apart from the commonality of the problem, the most dangerous aspect was that youngsters were the most common victims. In a recently conducted joint operation by the Task Force Police and the Drugs Control Authority (DCA), five college students, including a girl, were caught red-handed while purchasing Fortwin injections from a medical shop near Appu Ghar on the Beach Road.

Speaking about the number of incidents where youngsters could purchase drugs without the prescription, Police Commissioner N. Sambasiva Rao said, “Youngsters being prone to addiction is a dangerous signal for any society. In the adolescent brain, the centres for judgment and self-control are still developing, resulting in many teens being less than careful about the decisions they make and more open to risk-taking. We are taking strong measures under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act and working in conjunction with DCA against drug peddlers. We are also counselling the young victims to control the problem.”

For the past six months stringent measures have been taken against the sale of the drugs. Thirteen chemists of Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Anakaplle are being tried in five cases in different courts of Visakhapatnam. The most commonly abused drugs in the district were codeine phosphate syrups, pentazocine lactate and nitrazepam, according to the DCA.

The DCA has also conducted a survey in Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts to identify the chemists and distributors involved in purchasing and selling the habit-forming drugs without prescription. Based on the survey, they identified the shops that were purchasing these stocks from Anakapalle, Elamanchili, Pendurthi, Simhachalam, Gopalapatnam, Muralinagar and Prahaladapuram areas and raided them along with the Taskforce Police on May 22 and May 25.

Excessive use of these drugs is a disease and family and society support is very crucial in managing it. “There is a very thin line between substance use and abuse. Drug dependence is defined by the role drugs play in your life and you need to be aware of the signs of danger among people around you,” say drug de-addiction experts and psychiatrists.

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