E-Paper
Ludhiana: De-addiction centre sees 193 kids in 3 years
Dr Arvind Goyal, head of the de-addiction centre at the Ludhiana Civil Hospital, says the centre is not meant for children so kids who need admission are referred to to the children’s de-addiction centre in Kapurthala
The de-addiction centre at the Ludhiana Civil Hospital here has been receiving addicts under 12 years of age struggling with heroin and cannabis addiction. Since April 2022, the centre has seen 193 such cases. “For every hundred addicts who come to the centre, 5-6 are children under 12,” said Dr Arvind Goyal, who heads the centre.
The youngest of these kids, Dr Goyal recalls, was an eight-year-old from the Tibba Road area here. “The parents noted that the kid was behaving differently. Upon inspection, we found injection marks on his hand. Upon further questioning, he revealed that he had been taking heroin for the last six months,” he said.
Dr Goyal said he regularly comes across such cases. The priority he said was symptom-based treatment through OPD with detoxification. As the de-addiction centre is not meant for children, for the cases that need admission, they are referred to as the children’s de-addiction centre in Kapurthala. Most of the cases involve kids addicted to heroin, cannabis and fluids.
According to Dr Goyal, after the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a rise in people seeking psychiatric help. “The centre has been there since 2015. I have also been here for six years now. It is only after 2021, the ending phase of Covid-19, that we started seeing people bringing in their kids with suspicions of them being involved in drugs,” he said.
Dr Inderjeet Dhingra, head of Dr Kotnis Acupuncture Hospital and Education Centre, an NGO involved in fighting drug abuse, runs the centre-backed ‘Community-based Peer Led Intervention (CPLI) programme which targets drug abuse among kids.
He said the problem had always been around but with the change in type of drugs, the picture has only turned in last three or four years. “Earlier, people took pills like nitrazepam, which are prescribed to patients suffering from mental health issues as it provides mental rest. These would go for around 40-50 a strip. Children have been an essential part of the drug delivery network. As the drugs were cheap, the carrier children also got a paltry sum. However, the picture turned when drugs like heroin came into the scene. Now, the courier kid who made ₹50 a day earlier was getting around ₹1,000 a day. They were already carrying the drugs and now also had the money to use them,” said Dr Dhingra, explaining how and when the drug menace started affecting kids.
The NGO under the programme trains around 20-25 peer leaders every month, who then go back to their social circles and spread awareness about drugs.
