Survey to find extent of drug addiction in state

PATIALA: While the drug addiction survey ordered by the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment--which was to be conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)--is yet to see light of the day, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has decided to conduct the first-ever exhaustive study aimed at ascertaining the exact extent of problem of substance abuse in Punjab.
As politicians have been trading charges against each other on the number of drug addicts in the state, this survey would determine the incidence and prevalence of drug addiction in rural and urban Punjab.
Results of the survey are expected to crystallize in a year and a half. The survey would be based on random sampling and response-driven mechanism, wherein an addict would further help in identifying more addicts in his location.
The ICMR has already roped in four Punjab institutes -- Government medical colleges (GMCs) of Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot and mental hospital, Amritsar -- to gather data in their respective territories.
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, will anchor the survey and its experts will be principal investigators. The GMCs in Patiala and Faridkot will gather data from seven districts each and teams from the two Amritsar hospitals will conduct similar field surveys in eight districts of Majha and Doaba regions.
"Exercises to determine the nature of survey and sampling has already been done. Within a couple of days, field workers would be out in villages and cities to collect data. It would take us around 1.5 years to collect the data and calculate the results.
This will be the first-ever exhaustive survey of this scale to determine the drug problem in Punjab," said Dr Balwant Singh Sidhu, HoD psychiatry at GMC, Patiala. Another senior doctor, requesting anonymity, said sampling would be done in each district headquartre and a big village of district.
Debate on the extent of drug problem in the state had begun in 2012 when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi publicly said 70% of Punjabi youths were addicts.
In 2013, Punjab Police organized a crackdown on drug smugglers, some of whom are settled overseas.
Recently, speaking at the 350th foundation year celebrations of Anandpur Sahib, the Union home minister Rajnath Singh also expressed "disappointment" over rampant drug addiction among Punjabis. However, in all these years, the exact number of Punjabi drug addicts never came to light.