Tackling drug menace in the Sikh state of Punjab. Date: 11/07/2007
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Addressing a panel discussion after the screening of Reema Anand's documentary on drug addiction "Punjab: The enemy within" at the Chandigarh Press Club, Dua pleaded for saving the energetic Punjabis from decay caused by drugs.
Equating the syringes shown in the documentary to missiles that were destroying society, Dua said they were the symbols of death as over 50 per cent of the youth of Punjab had fallen prey to them.
"In fact, liquor is the first step to addiction in Punjab," Anand told mediapersons after the screening of the documentary. Drugs were the slow poison that effected the entire family and society and grandparents and parents are today fighting this enemy within in Punjab, she said.
The influx of the migratory labour had left the rural Punjabi youth with hardly any work. “With no work, they take to drugs and are ruining their lives,” she said.
Even the NRI money being pumped into Punjab was responsible for the sorry state of affairs and goes a long way in pushing the youths to drugs, she added.
Dr Jatinder Jain, DIG (Bathinda range), regretted that there was no national policy to tackle the drug menace. Criminal neglect on the part of the parents was the basic cause of the children taking to drugs, he claimed.
Sharing Dr Jain's sentiments, Dr Deepinder Singh from Ludhiana, regretted that society seemed to have accepted the use of drugs. Awareness, prevention and treatment were essential parts of the any strategy to tackle the menace, he added.
Prabhjot Singh, senior journalist, who moderated the discussion, said the connivance of the politicians and the police with the drug mafia had virtually led to the mushrooming of a parallel economy in the state and only a mass movement against drug addiction could save the present and future generations.
Meanwhile, the documentary showed heart-rending scenes of the farmers consuming poppy husk and youngsters puncturing their veins with syringes.
Premiered at Los Angeles in 2006, the documentary makes a mention of the rural population in Punjab, particularly in Malwa hooking onto "bhukki" (poppy husk) which had become the poor man's addiction and smack and heroin being used by the richer sections of society in urban areas.
“Punjabis struggled hard to fight with Central Government in the past but now they are up against a enemy within,” the narrator said in the documentary underlining the nexus between politicians-police-drug mafia.
