Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced to ensure free distribution of medicines to the drug addicts being treated as outdoor patient in the drug de-addiction centers of government hospitals, community health centers besides three medical colleges at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot.Presiding over a high level meeting with the senior officers of the health department and principals of the government medical colleges, Mr. Badal asked them to launch a vigorous mass awareness campaign to sensitize the youth in order to wean them away from drug addiction. He asked the Principal Secretary Health to engage the services of experts and eminent psychiatrists to educate the drug addicts about the ill effects of drug addiction. To curb this menace far more efficiently, the Chief Minister also underscored the need to constitute a committee comprising a drug de-addiction officer, social security officer, medical officer and a police officer at each district headquarter. These committees would be further manned by the central committee headed by the Principal Secretary Health comprising Director State Narcotics Cell, senior officers of health department and eminent psychiatrists as members to oversee the functioning of these committees and would also give irections from time to time to achieve the desired objective besides regularly updating the Chief Minister.
During the deliberations in the meeting Professor & Head psychriat Department PGIMER Dr. Ajit Awasthi informed the Chief Minister that at present there were nearly 600 beds to admit such patients for detoxification in these drug de-addiction centers across the state. He said that these centers were well equipped with adequate trained manpower including 33 psychiatrists and 21 psychiatrist social workers and other paramedics for the treatment and rehabilitation of the drug addicts besides ensuring quality supply of medicines, food and security arrangements to them.
Badal endorsed the views put forth by Dr.Awasthi that the social leaders and panchayats were required to play a crucial role in sustaining the tempo of drug de-addiction especially when the drug addicts were discharged from these centers after detoxification. He also asked the Jail authorities to treat the drug addicts lodged in jails as indoor patients so that they could lead a normal life after giving up this die-hard habit of drug addiction. Mr. Badal directed the jail superintendents to ensure that these patients must be treated on priority for detoxification by the dedicated teams of doctors and psychiatrists of the medical colleges attached to respective jails. Meanwhile, the Principal Secretary Health apprised the Chief Minister about the functioning of de-addiction centers at Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, Bathinda and Faridkot and other de-addiction centers. Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary Health Mrs.Vinni Mahajan, ADGP Intelligence Mr. Hardip Singh Dhillon, Director State Narcotic Cell IG Mr. Ishwar Singh, Vice Chancellor Baba Farid University of Health Sciences Dr. SS Gill, Director Health Services Mr. Karanjit Singh.