Delhi Police opens drug de-addiction centre

To tackle the menace of drug addiction and its immediate fallout, which it said was the rise in petty crimes in the old city area, Delhi Police today opened a de-addiction centre in North Delhi's Kotwali police station.
The centre will cater to hundreds of addicts including children living in night shelters or on roadsides near Old Delhi Railway Station and also in and around Chandni Chowk, which is considered a high density zone for drug addicts.
The centre will provide Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) under which people who are addicted to things like smack, heroin, etc. Are provided with a replacement drug, a prescribed medicine under supervision.

"With the effect of this medicine, addicts do not experience any discomfort associated with drug withdrawals, craving to use illegal drugs like heroin. Once they use this drug, they will not get any kick for the illicit drugs which they had been taking in the past. This effectively means a life free of clutches of addiction and crime," said DCP (North) Madhur Verma.
Experts say this is the most effective treatment for opioid addiction, backed by a very strong research-evidence, conducted globally as well as in India, he added.
Prescribed medicine can then slowly be withdrawn. Once these people can be de-addicted, we will work out some vocational training programme for them which would help them earn their livelihood, police said.

"This would also bring down petty crime in the area as these people resort to theft and pick-pocketing to buy drugs. After observing the initial results from this centre, Delhi Police may be willing to support such centres in other parts of the city as well," said Verma.

While the city already has about nine such OST centres functioning in different hospitals and NGOs, what makes this OST centre unique is the collaborative manner in which different agencies have come together to support it.
Delhi Police has provided the infrastructure and other logistic support, while the Delhi State AIDS Control Society has provided the staff and the medicines. The National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) of AIIMS will provide the training and capacity building of the staff.

The centre will also help stop spread of HIV/AIDS through sharing used needles and syringes.
At the forefront of this initiative is a Delhi-based NGO, the Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM), which has ensured coordination between different agencies and will manage the day-to-day affairs of the OST centre and will also manage and motivate local drug addicts to come to the centre.