Contrasting economic factors — unemployment on the one hand, and the availability of easy money on the other — have led to the devastating rise of substance abuse and drug addiction in five northwestern States.
According to a recent study — with a central focus on Punjab, but also covering Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir — these are the two main economic reasons behind drug addiction in 80% of cases surveyed in these States.
The study, titled ‘Dynamics of Drug Addiction and Abuse in North West India: Social, Economic and Political Implications’, was commissioned by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and completed at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID). It was carried out Ranjit Singh Ghuman, a professor of eminence (economics) at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, along with Gurinder Kaur and Jatinder Kaur, assistant professors at CRRID.
