Doctors enlist Imams in Kashmir drugs fight

SRINAGAR: Thirty Imams from key Kashmir mosques gathered Thursday at Srinagar’s govt-run Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) for a meeting where doctors briefed them on the growing drug abuse among youths in the Valley and sought help in addressing the problem.

An IMHANS survey last year estimated that the Valley had 67,468 substance-dependent people -- over 1% of its population.

IMHANS professor Yasir Hassan Rather urged the Imams to utilise their pulpits, particularly Friday sermons, to disseminate messages of a drug-free lifestyle. “There is an urgent need for collective and community-based interventions. As religious leaders you can be proactive agents of change in curbing this crisis,” Rather told the Imams who had been sent by J&K Waqf Board.

While doctors and counsellors had earlier appealed to clerics for help in combating drugs menace, this was the first time so many had been brought under one roof for the purpose.

According to Rather, while patterns of substance use keep shifting, there has been a rise in abuse of pharmaceutical drugs including tapentadol and pregabalin, keeping the overall situation deeply alarming.

Last year’s IMHANS survey identified heroin as the most widely used drug, with 53.5% users sharing needles while injecting and 65.1% reusing the needles -- leaving them prone to infections.

Dr Fazal e Roub, assistant professor at IMHANS, stressed the importance of the Imams’ influence in early identification and treatment of substance users. “Substance users must be seen as patients, not criminals,” Roub said.

BJP spokesperson and Waqf board chairperson Darakhshan Andrabi welcomed the effort to create widespread awareness. “Imams have a huge reach. They often address congregations of thousands. Once doctors brief them on the severity of the drug abuse problem and how parents can identify early signs of addiction in their children, they will be able to communicate that knowledge through their sermons. I am for regular interactions between Imams and doctors if we want to eradicate drug abuse from Kashmir,” Andrabi told TOI.