–Cracking down on the menace of drug addiction

Chandigarh, August 25 –Cracking down on the menace of drug addiction, the Haryana Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cancelled 46 and suspended 125 retail sale drug licenses, and got registered 24 FIRs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, since November, 2015.
Stating this here today, an official spokesman said that a mechanism had been created for exchange of information regarding the drug trade after a meeting with officers concerned of Punjab and Haryana.
Reiterating that the state government was making consistent efforts to curb the use of and trade in intoxicants, he said that several raids had been conducted with the assistance of police. Action is taken against those found stocking or selling medical intoxicants or psychotropic drugs illegally without having a drug license.

The spokesman said that at a recent meeting presided over by the Health Minister it was decided to constitute state and district-level committees for monitoring the situation. Decisions were also taken on gathering and sharing of intelligence and helping in conducting raids on errant chemists by the FDA.
It was also decided to set up de-addiction centres, map the number of patients in each category of addictive substance abuse in the districts, set up call centres and SMS facility and provided for online tracking of scheduled drugs.
A comprehensive anti-drug and anti-addiction curriculum would be developed for students and a social mobilisation committee would be set up for Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities and penalisation for sale of illicit liquor, he added.
Only 397 youths are undergoing treatment at the de-addiction centres in the state, which is quite nominal in comparison to the total population of the state, he added.