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Continuing the health awareness and education
programme, Dr (Col) Rajinder Singh, former Senior Advisor (Psychiatry), Armed
Forces, and Director, Akal Drug De-Addiction Centres, delivered an exhaustive
lecture on “Drug Abuse: A Global Problem vis-a-vis Punjab/India” at the
Dispensary Hall of Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib on April 12, 2026.
Addressing a gathering of the general public,
members of the Gurdwara, teachers, home makers, health professionals and
retired people, Dr (Col) Rajinder Singh highlighted the problem of drug abuse
at global level, citing the UN Office on Drugs and Crime statistics. These
revealed that over the last two decades, the number of people who use drugs has
grown by 23%, whereas the population increased by 6% during the same period.
The number of annual deaths attributed to drugs, alcohol, and nicotine
worldwide is 12 million — including 8.7 million due to tobacco, 2.7 million due
to alcohol, and 0.6 million due to other substances.
He said, in India, the prevalence of opioid use is
three times the global average, as per the report of the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment. The problem is massive, and increasing rapidly. He
said in Punjab, the use of semi-synthetic and synthetic opioids, especially
injectables, has taken over the drug scene and poses a significant danger to
society. The modes of tackling it have been challenging which require long-term
efforts, both from the society and the government.
Dr (Col) Rajinder Singh further said while the
scourge of drug dependence has damaging repercussions on an individual’s
physical, emotional and socio-cultural well-being, at the same time
de-addiction of drug-dependent persons is a time-consuming and a challenging
job. Therefore, efforts must be taken to prevent drug abuse at all levels,
particularly in adolescence.
Strategies must be
formulated with the aim of promoting a healthy lifestyle and dissuading users
or potential users from experimenting with illegal drugs and/or using them,
especially in vulnerable population like school and college-goers, focusing on
the harms related to drug abuse.
The lecture elicited rapt interest of the audience, with Dr (Col) Rajinder Singh answering a variety of queries and questions of the participants.
