Hon’ble Governor of Punjab and Administrator, UT, Chandigarh releases Study on Status of Substance Abuse and Roadmap for Prevention and Control in Punjab
Chandigarh : February 21 : The second edition of Roadmap for Prevention and Control of Substance Abuse in Punjab. edited by Dr. JS Thakur, Professor of Community Medicine at PGIMER was released on 21st February, 2022by Sh. Banwarilal Purohit, Hon’ble Governor of Punjab and Administrator, UT Chandigarh.The report contains comprehensive information on burden of substance abuse in India and the state of Punjab, various types of substances abused by people, strategies for prevention and control, the District Substance Abuse Prevention Plan and implementation.
During the occasion,Prof. Surjit Singh, Director PGIMER, Chandigarh and Dr. GB Singh, DHS Punjab were also present
The report highlights burden of substance abuse in Punjab. As per the State of Punjab Household Survey (SPHS) and State wide NCD STEPs Survey by PGIMER, the projected number of overall substance use in Punjab is 15.4%. Translating it to the absolute number, more than 3 million people in Punjab are currently consuming one or the other kind of drug, mainly among the men. Alcohol is the maximally abused substance by more than 2 million people, followed by tobacco which is consumed by more than 1.5 million people. This is followed by abuse of opioids by 1.7 lakh individuals, followed by cannabinoids as well as sedative-inhalant- stimulants. The latter are largely a class of pharmacological or prescription drugs being used illicitly. There are also large number of injecting drug users in state with high prevalence of HIV (19.5%) in recent survey.
The book is made in the simple form easily understood by the technical and lay public. The basic information on various types of drugs and their effect on body and impact of substance abuse on teens, younger and older adults is mentioned in the book. Key features of the book include comprehensive information on development of strategies of prevention and control of Substance abuse and implementation guidelines with estimated budget required for a five-year plan. There is a provision for setting up of the state, regional resource and training centres in a decentralized manne, and the service delivery under the plan cover village, block and district level and can be evaluated every five years. Thus, the plan itself is a self-sustained strategy, which will work towards supply, demand and harm reduction measures. Supply reduction strategy means to target the illegal drugs, whereby the efforts generally involve attempts to disrupt the distribution and supply chains for these drugs. Demand reduction can be mediated via the efforts aimed at reducing the public desire for illegal and illicit drugs. De-addiction services are contributing to demand reduction measures. Harm reduction or minimization strategy tends to include a range of public health policies designed to reduce the harmful consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal.It is time for the government to actively implement plan as the state is already suffering from a great burden of substance dependence and addiction and only the curative services are not going to break the chain of supply and demand.
“This report was the outcome of request by the Govt; of Punjab by then Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare; Punjab. Book has incorporated a few interesting case studies from different part of Punjab. It has advocated introduction of life skills education in school and college curriculum. It also emphasized peer group approach in educational institutions which is an effective way to motivate adolescents and young adults. Since the focus is on prevention, the life-cycle approach actually caters to individuals of every age group.
The honorable Governor, Punjab applauded the efforts by Prof. Thakur and his team and appreciated the role of public health approaches to deal with this social menaces. He endorsed the very essence of this report- prevention is better than cure in all respects.
Dr JS Thakur
Professor, Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGI
