By Our Reporter
Shillong: Jaintia Hills district has recorded the highest concentration of drug users in the State with a total of 5398 out of which 860 are Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) often considered as the group most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.
Disclosing this fact at a function to observe the World AIDS Day at Don Bosco Youth Centre here on Thursday, president of the Manbha Foundation, Dr Rica Lamar, said in Jowai under the Targeted Intervention (TI) project by the Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya (VHAM), around 860 IDUs have been detected in the district out of 5398 drug users. Ri Bhoi has recorded 2397 drug users, while the figures are 1525 in West Khasi Hills, 1500 in East Garo Hills, 1100 in West Garo Hills and 800 in South Garo Hills.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on the sidelines of the function, Dr Lamar said the main reason behind the rise of drug users in the State is the lack of knowledge and ignorance about the risks, drug culture which involves sharing of needles, syringes and other drug paraphernalia.
Reacting to a query, Dr Lamar said people in Jaintia Hills are wealthy and ever since Jaintia Hills emerged as the coal centre of the State in the 1980s, income of the people have also increased, and with it the use of drugs.
“Heroin is the most commonly used drug which is trafficked to the State via Silchar.
“Most of the time, parents don’t have time to look after their children especially teenagers who are more vulnerable to such things due to peer pressure,” Dr Lamar added.
“However, in East Khasi Hills especially in Shillong, the kinds of drugs used are less harmful and less expensive than heroin. Most future addicts take drugs considering it as a fashion but what they do not realise is that it is a deadly practice.
“Street children in the city are no exception in this case. The common drug consumed by them is dendrite. They inhale dendrite mainly to forget the painful and pathetic condition of their life,” she said.
Referring to harassment of drugs users as being a serious issue, Dr Lamar informed that in the past 4 to 5 years, several reports of drug users in Jaintia Hills being harassed by the community have emerged with two of the users even losing their lives.
“But now with the coordination of the community, Seng Longkmie, NGOs and the government, centres has been set up to provide counseling to the drug users,” the doctor mentioned.
“To fully recover from this habit is a slow process and in many cases, the habit relapses. At present about 20 per cent of them have recovered,” she added.
Talking about the treatment and rehabilitation of drug users, Dr Lamar said that around 17 Integrated Counseling and Testing Centres (ICTC) are present in the State, while for IDUs, the Harm Reduction Intervention has been offered in the State with an aim to prevent, slow down and reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic among IDUs.
“This Harm Reduction Intervention is a multi-pronged approach including the Needle Syringes Exchange Programme (NSEP) and the Oral Substitution Therapy (OCT),” Dr Lamar said, while adding that there were a lot of challenges while carrying out the NSEP since people often questioned the distribution of needles to the drug users saying that it was like an encouragement for them to get indulged in drugs. Besides there are problems like difficulty in getting NOC to set up treatment centres,” she pointed out.
There are around 574 NSEP and OCT run by VHAM and 385 NSEP run by Manbha Foundation in Shillong whereas in Jaintia Hills there are 638 NSEP and OCT.