DRUG ABUSE IN MIZORAM

August 23, 2024

DRUG ABUSE IN MIZORAM

Aizawl: Mizoram a state in the northeast India and Aizawl as its largest city. It is the most southernmost state in India, sharing borders with three of the states which are Tripura, Assam and Manipur, also with 722-kilometer border with the neighboring countries Bangladesh and Myanmar. Mizoram is a dry state due to this there is cheap and easy availability of drug made this beautiful state of Mizoram with the highest percentage of drug addicts in India. Since 1984, the death toll took 1804 people including 218 women have died due to the constant drug abuse in Mizoram. 44 people which includes seven women, have died due to the constant drug abuse in Mizoram from January to the July this Year, the state Excise and Narcotics department said.

Mizoram Police and the Excise and Narcotics Department officers have seized a total 89.317 kg of heroin and 335.605 kgs methamphetamine over these past months (January to July). The Drug smuggling continues to be a major cause of concern for the society and this beautiful peace-loving state. The Government, Police, all the other security Agencies and Civil Society have joined hands together for putting an end to illegal drugs smuggling peddling and consuming. Mizoram police has also made all out efforts in the fight against this menace resulting in significant seizures. The following data has been taken from Mizoram police press statement No.F.14018/1/19-smc/214, Dated Aizawl the 12^th April,2023.

Drugs in Mizoram is so common that the most of the drug users said that they started doing drugs after seven to 12 years since they started schooling and most of them started smoking before they even started doing drug. The survey revealed that 81.6 per cent of drug users were jobless while 32 percent drug users among males had permanent jobs. Among the female drug users, 12.9 per cent sold drugs and 33 percent were commercial sex workers

Death due to drugs have been so common in Mizoram that now the government had to introduce various different schemes to curb the menace but the deaths are continuously increasing which is a dangerous situation for the state. The most widely used drugs in Mizoram are Spasmo-proxyvon and Heroin, despite massive efforts made by the Mizoram government and civil society organizations to curb drug menace, the drug death toll is increasing in the state after the total prohibition on alcohol. Mizoram is sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh and most of the drugs, especially heroin came from Myanmar, last 5 years death toll due to drug in Mizoram soared high which raised many eyebrows and these death numbers alarmed the government how much of a stricter action has to be taken place in order to control these mortality rate which are due to consuming drugs

These data provided by Narcotics department shows the surge of the death rate amongst the citizen of Mizoram, the statistics shows male female and total number of deaths, taking last 5 years 2020,2021,2022,2023,2024 (upto 24^th July) these data are subjected to the reference.

Drug abuse in Mizoram has the most challenges cause this multifaceted phenomenon greatly affects the social, private and psychological behavior of an individual in particular and the society in general. The drug culture tends to isolate the drug abuser from the general normative structure of the society, which they consider hostile and by whom they are often considered alien or deviant. In the last two decades, the tentacles of drugs abuse have spread so alarmingly that it is causing serious concern to the international community. Drug abuse is now no longer limited to traditional user-groups, the youths of the industrialised urban areas. The Young Mizo Association (YMA) has a member in virtually every Mizo home and helps to curb this evil from the society. Mizoram is a beautiful state but this menace is making it in the radar of the narcotics

department and due to this youth face so many challenges that we couldn’t even imagine of but there is continuous rigorous process ongoing in the Mizoram state taking the help of the young association, attending meetings regularly to ward of this evil, Drug is something that is a form of temptation but could take life and the quality of life so for this we need to ensure that is temptation had to be controlled in a very definite form.