Jammu, Feb 4: Minister for Health and Medical Education, Sakina Itoo on Thursday said the government will introduce a bill to comprehensively address the menace of substance abuse in J&K.

She was responding to a question by NC MLA Tanvir Sadiq.
The Minister said the draft legislation was ready to be tabled.
“The rules have been framed and forwarded to the Law Department for scrutiny and necessary examination,” she said.
Itoo said the government had devised comprehensive regulations to tackle various aspects of substance abuse.
“We remain committed to strengthening preventive and rehabilitative measures to curb the growing menace,” she said.
While legislator Sadiq inquired regarding the progress on addressing drug abuse in J&K, he drew the attention of the House towards the assurances provided by the Government in the last Assembly session.
“I withdrew the private member bill on drug abuse after it was stated in the house that a legislation was being framed,” the NC MLA said.
The Minister informed the house that 49276 cases of drug abuse have been reported in Jammu and Kashmir since 2022.
She said 16759 such patients have been registered in Kashmir and 32517 in Jammu.