City has 75,000 drug abusers: study

By Sahana Charan

BANGALORE, SEPT. 2. Bangaloreans contribute to about four per cent of the entire population of drug users in the country, says the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment-sponsored study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in the City.

The Rapid Survey Assessment Project on Trends in Drug Abuse in Bangalore carried out by NIMHANS reveals that there are close to around 75,000 drug abusers in the City. Most of these abusers come from poor backgrounds.

A rough estimate puts the number of opiate addicts at around 10,000, while cannabis users are estimated at close to 29,000. There are about 25,000 inhalant users in the City.

But the most alarming and, probably the most disturbing, outcome of the project report is that most of the inhalant users are street and slum children with an average age of 13. Around 60-70 per cent of the about one lakh children resort to abuse of inhalants.

Ironically, the official estimates are considerably low because there is no way to put an exact figure to the number of inhalant users in the City owing to most of these persons coming from very poor socio-economic backgrounds and therefore, hardly reach treatment facilities.

As part of the study, 274 drug users were identified and administered a structured questionnaire. In addition, secondary treatment data was obtained from 257 drug users from treatment centres. The Institute worked in collaboration with the De- Addiction Network in the City which included non-government organisations and treatment centres. Information was also obtained from Police and Excise departments, Narcotics Control Bureau, the Central Prison, community key informants and HIV/AIDS counselling centres.

The study divulged that majority of drug addicts were initiated into the habit due to peer group pressure and curiosity (70 per cent), while other reasons given were stress factors, loneliness and the perils of urbanisation.

Apart from alcohol, which amounts for as high as 50 per cent of abuse especially at the time of initiation, cannabis (mostly in the form of ``ganja'') was the most commonly used drug in the community followed by opiates, chiefly heroin followed by inhalants.

According to Dr. Prathima Murthy, Project Director and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at NIMHANS, another area of concern was the fact that there were a lot of drugs available over the counter through prescription which were lately being abused.

``Opiate derivatives like buprenorphine (Tidigesic) and pentazochine were acquired from pharmacies quite easily. With respect to psychotropic drugs (mostly painkillers) also, very little has been done to regulate dispensing of drugs in chemist shops and except for a single case, no offence in this connection has been reported. Convictions in case of arrests for drug peddling are also negligible,'' she told The Hindu.

``Though there is no reason for alarm, the drug addiction scenario in the City is definitely a cause for concern. There was a need for continued monitoring, dialogue between supply and demand reduction agencies and a better approach to having preventive measures. From what we gathered about sexual behaviour among drug users and the presence of HIV/AIDS among the abusers, it may be concluded that there was a need to propagate sex education and awareness at all levels and safe sex practices,'' Dr. Murthy said.

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