12 Dec 2010

Drug addiction widespread in Punjab

8:02 am on 12 December 2010

There is growing concern in India about the rapidly increasing number of drug addicts in Punjab - one of India's wealthiest states.

Punjab has had a drugs problem for many years, but a recent study by the Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar suggested that as much as 70% of young Punjabi men were hooked on drugs or alcohol.

The BBC reports all sectors of society are affected.

Previously, India's north-eastern region, next to Myanmar (Burma) and close to the poppy-growing regions of the Golden Triangle, has had the most addicts.

But the bulk of the world's heroin now comes from Afghanistan and its main route into India is through Punjab, via Pakistan.

The frontier is heavily guarded, but cross-border gangs put the contraband in large tyre tubes and float them across the water to the other side of the border.

It's as if we're sitting on a time bomb that can explode at any time," said Dr JPS Bhatia, who has run a rehab clinic in the region's main city, Amritsar, for the past 15 years.

"The middle class and the affluent are the worst victims of this crisis."