Press Coverage on Narcotics Anonymous in Delhi and India:
Deccan Chronicle Article Hyderabad Sept 5th 2015:
Hyderabad:“Drugs had such a strong hold on me that even when I was working in a neonatal care unit, I could work only after there were drugs in my system. I didn’t mean to harm the children but it had become impossible for me,” says Dr Ashish, a medical practitioner from the city.He is a recovering drug addict and a member of Society of Indian Regional Service Narcotics Anonymous (SIRSCONA), India’s chapter of Narcotics Anonymous (NA).
Narcotics Anonymous in India is 28 years old and has over 185 recovery meetings weekly. There are three meetings held at the Hyderabad chapter of Narcotics Anonymous every week at two locations, usually in public places like schools, churches, libraries, community halls etc.“I underwent three treatment procedures for de-addiction. There was guilt in me, but no support system,” shares Dr Ashish, adding that the driving point for him to be a part of Narcotics Anonymous was “when people who speak of being far more addicted than me can be clean (from drugs) for years, why can’t I?”
Mr Vardhan from Chennai shares a similar story.“I was a national-level football player, but I sacrificed everything for drugs. I joined NA Bengaluru in 1992 first, but for a couple of days I would be clean, and then go back to drugs again. But in 1995, when day-to-day living was becoming a problem, I started attending the meetings religiously.”
A fellowship of NA doesn’t cost a person anything as there are no membership fees, nor do they use medicines for treatment. NA only expects “honesty, willingness, open-mindedness and hope” from its members.“We rely on mutual support and sharing of experiences. I had no money in my pocket when I attended the first meet. I was given tea and a hug and I was asked to return even if I was on drugs. That helped,” said Mr Benji, a recovering addict from Bengaluru.
“NA is a non-religious institution and we don’t accept funds from anyone. It is just one addict helping the other to get over addiction,” added Mr Amitabh who is a recovering addict from New Delhi.
30 per cent of drug addicts below 30 years:
The Narcotics Anonymous (NA) has around 8000 recovering and recovered addicts as members in its chapters in over 60 cities in India.Around 40 per cent of the recovering members who attend NA meetings have their own businesses, 30 per cent are employed and around 10 per cent are students. Nearly 30 per cent of the addicts who visit the meetings fall in the age group of 20-30 years.
Although started in 1999, the group hasn’t gained much ground in Hyderabad yet and there are only around 35 members at present.“In Delhi, the police stations have posters with contact numbers of the NA helpline. We have understood from our surveys that over 70 per cent of people who visit the meetings have been referred by hospitals and other institutions,” said Mr Amitabh, a recovering addict from Delhi.
The Hindu Article Sept 5th 2015
Nearly three decades ago, Vardhan’s life had come crashing down. His drug addiction had become so severe that he was ready to give up his career and family just to get high. Even going to rehabilitation centres only resulted in relapses, due to which his career as a national-level football player suffered.
Vardhan, in his 50s now, lives a life free of addiction, and he owes it to the Narcotics Anonymous group, which is an off-shoot of Alcoholics Anonymous. “My attitude was ‘I, me myself’. I got the message about the group in 1992 the first time, but it was some years later that it really helped me,” he recalled.
Alongside Vardhan were other members of Narcotics Anonymous, who shared their experiences, explaining how addiction should be treated as a problem and not a crime. “I am a doctor and I was working in the neo-natal care unit. The drugs had such a strong hold on me that I could do things only when they were in my system,” said Ashish, who is now leading a clean life.
Both of them shared that they faced relapses during treatment at rehabilitation clinics. Ashish said that the cause of it was lack of a support system. “The first time I had gone for a meeting, they clapped when I introduced myself,” he mentioned, adding that the group meetings provide the much-needed help to addicts. They were both attending a press conference organised by the group here on Friday.
Benjamin, another member from Bengaluru, pointed out that newcomers are encouraged to attend meetings even if they take drugs after attending a session. “I was a hopeless person when I was younger. Because I could not meet the expectations, I took to drugs,” he recalled.
As of now, the Narcotics Anonymous meetings in Hyderabad comprise between 20-25 members per session. “Over the last few years, the numbers have improved,” said Amitabh, who addressed the media. He added that overall, the group has touched 8,000 members.
The group meetings of Narcotics Anonymous provide the much-needed help to drug addicts
Ashish
A member
The Guardian Oct 1st 2015
When Anshul moved to Mumbai in 2003 as an aspiringBollywoodactor, it was the middle-class boy’s portal to a word of glamour, money and extravagance. But it was also his entry to a life-threatening cocaine addiction.
“It’s a different world and lifestyle,” he says. “I’d just bagged my first Bollywood role and I wanted to fit in, so when my friends at a party were doing cocaine, I too decided to do it.”
Like most users who have experimented with drugs, Anshul never thought he would become addicted. Three years later he nearly died of an overdose. “That was a wake-up call. For the first time in my life, I was scared of death,” he says.
WithIndiaexperiencing huge economic growth in recent years, Anshul is just one of a growing number of middle and upper-class Indians experimenting with the drug.
Rakesh’s introduction to cocaine was less glamourous. A business professional who grew up in New Delhi in a fairly well-off family, he first tried the drug in high school. “I never used it because of peer pressure but I wanted to know what it was all about. I could always afford it.”
It soon started to catch up with him and his friends. Of the 50 people Rakesh knows who have used cocaine, two have died from overdoses. He has since sought help: “I have suffered from nightmares, sweating, paranoia and breathlessness.”
The Delhi chapter ofNarcotics Anonymous (NA)has worked with former drug addicts like Rakesh since 1992. Each meeting has almost 30 individuals attending it every other day. The numbers attending due to cocaine abuse have remained consistent over the last few years, according to an NA official, even though it’s an expensive habit. “Even if these individuals have to steal money, they go ahead and do that.”
Dr Sanjeev Jain, professor, department of psychiatry, at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bengaluru, believes drug addiction should be treated as an economic issue in India. “Drugs follow disposable income,” he says, explaining many professionals he’s seen got started taking cocaine to reduce stress and anxiety about work.
But while there’s been reports of people using cocaine in India since the end of the nineteenth century it’s only in recent years that drug trafficking has become an increasingly organised business in India.
Nearly 47kgs of cocaine was seized from traffickers in 2013, according to the Narcotics Control Bureau’s (NCB)2013 annual report, which found an increase in the number of cocaine cases from 72 in 2012 to 78 in 2013.
The rise in cocaine busts reflects a wider trend in drug seizures across the country. According to government data, between 2011-2013, the quantity of illegal drugs seized across Indiajumped 455%.
“India has become a trafficking centre for other countries,” says PremAnandSinha, the Chennai zonal director of the NCB, who has already seen six cocaine seizures reported in Chennai this year. “The cocaine supplied here is not only meant for India; traffickers exploit this route to enter other countries.”
In response, enforcement agencies in India have stepped up their vigil, partly explaining why more seizures of commercial quantity cocaine have been made this year in Delhi compared with the last few years, said Rohit Sharma, Delhi zonal director, NCB.
Recent seizures of cocaine in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and of mules carrying cocaine personally on flights to India, also reflects the growing popularity of South American drug cartels exploring new trafficking routes in South Asia, says Christine Albertine, from the United Nations Office onDrugsand Crime.
Albertine says there has been a diversification of cocaine markets in the last two decades, with the drug, produced in Bolivia, Columbia and Peru, now more frequently traveling through West Africa to Gulf countries and South Asia.
RomeshBhattacharji, former narcotics commissioner of India, is not surprised by the increase in trafficking that’s come with the country’s economic boom though. He insists India would not be used as a supply route if there wasn’t already a high level of interest in the drug within the country.
“It is time to wake up. Contraband heads for spots where there is demand. These seizures are only a small fraction of what is being smuggled in.”
Some names have been changed.