Problem of substance abuse among children addressed
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 29 2019: Sumatibala Ningthoujam, Chairperson, MCPCR highlighted the critical problem of substance abuse in Manipur during the NCPCR sponsored consultation programme on substance use held at Guwahati.

She said that even though the use of various types of psychoactive substances such as alcohol, cannabis, opioids etc are known in Manipur for quite a long time, the current dimension of the extent and pattern of psychoactive substance use/abuse and the problems associated with their use have not been assessed adequately.

In the absence of reliable & detailed information about the drug abuse problem in NE region, it has been a challenge to formulate and implement effective policies & programmes to address the issue of drug abuse in the State, she said.

As per the report of the National survey on Extent & Pattern for Substance use prepared by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MOSJE), Govt of India, it has established that a substantial number of Manipuris used psychoactive substances like alcohol, cannabis and opioids, she said.

She also maintained that several tablets and tranquillizers namely Mandrake, Nitrosun (N10) are also consumed by many young people for the sake of euphoria.

Manipur Police have become very active and successfully accomplished their professional responsibility of seizing psychoactive substances in bulk quantities and that too very frequently, she said.

However, uncontrolled supply of drugs/psychoactive substances across the International border is still looming a big problem in the State, she said pointing out the the need to plug the sensitive and porous routes in the border areas.

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