Divisional Commissioner (Div Com) Kashmir, Anshul Garg on Monday convened an urgent meeting to address the alarming issue of drug addiction & substance use by youth in the Valley.

The meeting was attended by Director Health Services Kashmir; HOD Community Medicine, GMC Srinagar; CMO Srinagar, Deputy Director Health Service Kashmir, Deputy Director Planning, District Social Welfare Officer, OSD to Divisional Commissioner and other officers.

Taking serious note of the drug menace and stressing the need to curb its spread, Div Com called for multi-pronged approach to address drug abuse through intensive regulation of supply chain of Scheduled Drugs, monitoring of medical stores, regulation of private drug de-addiction centres besides evaluation of success rate of  de-addiction centres & Alternate Treatment Facilities (ATFs).

Highlighting the requirement for the strict & tangible measures to curb spread and use of prohibited substances, Div Com directed the constitution of the divisional committee to frame guidelines to address the menace.

He expressed serious concern over the increasing substance use which destroys lives of youth & social fabric in the society.

He urged to destroy the supply chain of banned substances to protect society and also called for de-linking of private drug stores from prescribing those drugs used for withdrawal symptoms of victims of drug menace to curtail misuse of prescriptions.