Need to change the discourse on Drug Addiction: Er. Nazir Yatoo.

Srinagar : J&K Aam Aadmi Party Provincial Vice-President Kashmir, Er. Nazir Yatoo has asked the government to change the perspective on Drug Addiction and stop imagining the solution through the policing mechanism as it is not a law and order issue.

In a statement, Er. Yatoo, said that Drug Addiction at the end of the day, remains a disease and needs to be addressed through a scientific enquiry support by a robust mental health care infrastructure. It’s in the absence of such facilities that youth take recourse into various kinds of addiction.

Er. Yatoo further said that J&K government in its next budget should allocate a major budgetary provision to build a world class mental health care facility to render treatment purely based on scientific, professional and technology driven manner. If hundreds of crores are used to design golf courses or hundreds of kanals of wild life land is leased to build five star hotels- why can’t the government use one of the picturesque spots of the valley for such facility. Health is important than tourism, he said.

“In the short term, government should permanently employ some of the best trained local therapists into permanent services. Kashmir has dozens of internationally trained therapists who in the absence of proper infrastructure and job security prefer not to work in the valley”, he further added.