SHILLONG: Tobacco use by children is the highest in Meghalaya in the country and this has become a cause for concern for the state government.
Informing this here on Saturday during the 1st National Conference on subs5tance abuse and suicides among youths, Dr W Kharshiing, MD of Woodland Institute of Nursing, said 96.4 percent of the children in Meghalaya use tobacco as against 95.8 percent in Nagaland and 93.1 percent in Sikkim.
Quoting a 2012 survey conducted by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry statistics of boys aged between 15-19 percent, Kharshiing asserted that the use of heroin is also seen to be the highest in Meghalaya at 27.3 percent followed by Punjab at 19.3 percent.
Besides, intravenous drugs seem to be popular amongst children with 88.6 percent in Mizoram followed by Punjab and Rajasthan at 25 percent each.
The expert pointed out that substance abuse by adolescents “is a major public concern” and addition goes beyond alcohol and tobacco.
Earlier, Kharshiing said as per the World Health Organisation, substance abuse is persistent or sporadic excessive drug use inconsistent with or unrelated to acceptable medical practice.
“With a turnover of around $500 billion, it is the third largest business in the world, next to petroleum and arms trade,” he said while adding that about 190 million people around the world consume one drug or the other.
Admitting that the number of drug addicts are increasing by the day, Kharshiing said intravenous use of analgesics like dextropropoxyphene are also reported from many states as it is easily available at one-tenth of the cost of heroin.
“Adolescent drug abuse is one of the major areas of concern. It is estimated that in India, by the time most boys reach the ninth grade, about 50 percent of them have tried at least one of the substances of abuse,” he added.
