Srinagar, July 3: During a routine checkup of drug abuser Farooq (name changed), doctors at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) noticed chronic scarred veins.
Doctors have been treating Farooq for many months for drug addiction. However, it was for the first time they noticed something very serious.
On investigation, doctors came to know that Farooq had been using adulterated or synthetic heroin (pharmaceutical opioids) for the last few years, which had caused damage to the patient’s veins.
Farooq too is not convinced about the purity of the drug he has been consuming. He referred to the adulterated heroin as `Gand’e maal’.
Farooq is not an isolated case. Doctors have come across many such cases in the last two years.
Dr Yasir Rather, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, IMHANS, GMC Srinagar told The Kashmir Monitor that the majority of the drug abusers are consuming adulterated heroin, which causes scarred veins among the abusers.
Adulterated or synthetic heroin, he explained, is a mixture of opium and opioid analgesics such as Tramadol.
“It is a mixture of pharmaceutical opioids. We have been noticing that heroin abusers have shifted to synthetic heroin. It is more dangerous than pure heroin,” Rather said.
He said its prolonged consumption can lead to the collapsing of veins, heart attack, and other fatal health complications. “It is lethal and increases the chances of heart attack. This mixture doesn’t get dissolved in blood and accumulates in veins,” Dr Rather said.
While Rather said that the consumption of heroin has declined in Kashmir now, he said the majority of adulterated heroin abusers are coming from the Jammu region.
The reason behind the abuse of adulterated heroin is being explained by an official source who said the police action against drug abuse had led to the shortage in the availability of heroin in Jammu and Kashmir.
“There are two reasons behind the increase in the abuse of adulterated heroin. First Afghanistan government has banned the cultivation of poppy, which has caused the dearth in smuggling of heroin and its availability in the market. Second, our local government and police have acted tough against the drug peddlers by attaching their properties,” he said.
A source said the dearth of heroin has prompted drug abusers to switch over to synthetic drugs or opioids.
