Over 350 persons held in Kashmir for drug-related crimes in 18

Over 350 persons have been arrested in the Kashmir Valley for alleged involvement in drug-related activities in the past one and a half years, a senior police official said today.
"In the fight against drugs, police have arrested over 350 persons involved in drug-related activities since last one and a half year," Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) A G Mir said addressing a seminar at a college here.
The seminar 'Drug addiction, causes and counter remedies' was organised by an NGO in S P College.
The IGP said police was relentlessly working to curb drug peddling in the Valley.
"Last year, police arrested 247 persons involved in illicit drug-related activities and registered 227 cases under the NDPS Act in Kashmir Zone, besides recovering 2,574 kg cannabis and its derivatives and about 11,000 bottles and 17,000 tablets of psychotropic prescription drugs," he said.

"As many as 1000 kg cannabis and its derivatives, 115 kgs of brown sugar and about 1,600 bottles and 14,000 tablets of psychotropic prescription drugs were also recovered by police in Kashmir division from the peddlers," he said.

The officer said this year so far, 113 cases of NDPS Act had been registered and 147 persons involved in them had been arrested.
Talking about the ways of dealing with the problem, the IG said, "The menace of drug addiction needs to be countered on two fronts, de-addiction treatment for addicts and awareness for others."
The official said police had started a drug de-addiction center in Srinagar in 2008 and subsequently two more centres were established at Baramulla and Anantnag.

These centers have 30 qualified staff comprising psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, medical officers, counselors, social workers and yoga therapists, he said.
He said the centre has so far held 43 school mental health programmes which have covered all major schools of Srinagar city and some schools in north and south Kashmir.
"Focus is to provide awareness to school children for the prevention of drug abuse," he said.