From drugs to rehab: It’s now a couple thing in Punjab
AMRITSAR/BATHINDA : She used to help patients as a nurse. Now Madhu from Ludhiana is under treatment at the drug de-addiction centre of Max Hospital in Bathinda, the state’s first private hospital to open one.
Discovering symptoms of heroin addiction was not difficult for her husband, a drug addict himself. But what was difficult for him was to accept that it was not just the prerogative of the “men of the house”. “Ek aurat kaise yeh kar sakti hai (how can a woman do something like this),” he asked Dr Satish Thapar, head of psychiatry and the de-addiction centre at Max.
Madhu, who is in her early 30s, started with stealing small amounts of heroin from her husband’s packets when he would be away. They are now together undergoing treatment at the centre with weekly visits.
Madhu is not the only woman caught in the vortex of drug menace. She, in fact, grimly exemplifies how Punjab’s drug menace is a half-told story. It’s been mostly about the men. Among those visiting de-addiction centres and rehabs after the government crackdown on drugs are also women — homemakers, students, nurses, dancers and sex workers.
HELL AND BACK
At the Hermitage, an all-women rehab in Amritsar, a petite 34-year-old Harpreet could well be mistaken for a college student. Until she tells you it has been a journey through hell. She got hooked to drugs after a love marriage went wrong. Her husband, an alcoholic, would get physically abusive and Harpreet became dependent on tranquillisers and anti-depressants.
A mother of two, both teenagers, she did not realise when her dependence on sedatives became chronic and she took to narcotic drugs. “Those six months were like a nightmare. But I was a mother and came out of it sooner than my husband, who is still under treatment,” she says.
The journey has made her a healer too. She now spends six hours a day at the rehab, counselling other women addicts, then comes back home to be with a husband. “It’s still an everyday struggle to see an addict at home, but the couple therapy has saved our 16-year marriage,” she adds.
Doctors say it is not uncommon for women to get addicted to drugs due to frustration of dealing with an addict husband and in-house availability.
Dr Thapar claims that out of 100 cases, nearly 40 are of couples. “It is now common among young couples as women become a source of procurement for men. Many women who are couriers start as victims of sexual abuse.”
DELIVERY TO DOPE
Punjab has in recent years seen a rise in the cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Pscyhotropic Substances (NDPS) Act against women. Both police and psychiatrists attribute the trend to the use of girls and women for peddling to avoid suspicion. Many turn addicts.
The most vulnerable are those from poor socio-economic strata and the entertainment industry such as orchestra singers and dancers.
“And since their addiction is linked to the company they keep, their rehabilitation is most difficult,” says Dr Thapar.
Amritsar-based psychiatrist JPS Bhatia sees women addicts as more vulnerable as they are dependent on men.
“A gram of heroin costs anything between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000. Those from affluent families can afford it. Others depend on men for supply and are soft targets for sexual exploitation and peddling,” he explains
The quick buck and glamour of film industry too make some an easy prey. A Punjabi actor came all the way from Mumbai to Max’s Bathinda centre for treatment.
HOOKED YOUNG
What’s worrying doctors is that drugs are catching students. For Jalandhar’s Sakshi, an 18-yearold medical student, it all started with a call to a number she found on YouTube. “As an only child, I had no company. I was curious to know what it was like to get a high. The number turned out to be of my batchmate from Class 8,” she says, sitting in her room at The Hermitage. “I started with ordering 10 grams of heroin. It became 20 grams within three months. I lost all inhibitions and got involved with him as I was dependent on him,” she says.
Her parents discovered her addiction when she was admitted to a hospital after an accident. “They are now helping me get out of it. I made quite a mess of my life at an early stage.”
But not all girls can count on parents for support. Amritsar’s Lavanya, 16, did not seek help for months. She now comes for counselling to an all-women rehab but without the knowledge of her mother. “If I tell her, she will keep worrying that I won’t get married if people find out about my addiction,” she says, wryly.
Women who cannot afford to buy drugs depend on men for supply and are soft targets for sexual exploitation.
JPS BHATIA, psychiatrist