Ministry redrafts national policy for drug demand reduction

According to sources in the Ministry, the national policy for drug demand reduction was redrafted following directions from the Prime Ministers Office which found the original draft to the very lengthy.

"We had sent the draft policy to the Prime Ministers office for approval. They have found the original draft to be very lengthy and asked us to concise it. We have redrafted the policy now," said a source.

The redrafted policy mainly focuses on the rehabilitation aspect of the victims apart from the covering two broad areas -- the illicit drugs including cannabis, heroin and opium and the other, pharmaceutical preparations like tranquilisers and inhalants.

The policy emphasises on strengthening coordination among various regulatory agencies concerned to check the diversion of substances from lawful channels to illicit networks, including internet pharmacies.

The objective of the policy is to undertake drug demand reduction efforts to address all forms of drug use, including misuse and dependence, to create awareness about the ill-effects of drugs abuse on the individual, family, workplace and the society at large.

It also aims to provide for a whole range of community based services for the identification, motivation, counselling, de-addiction, after care and rehabilitation for Whole Person Recovery (WPR) of addicts and facilitate research, training, documentation and collection of relevant information to strengthen the above mentioned objectives.

The objective is also to ensure that stigmatization of and discrimination against, groups and individuals dependent on drugs is actively discouraged in order to integrate them back into the society.