3,528 addicts getting treatment at opioid centres in 3 districts

AMRITSAR : As many as 3,528 addicts of herion, smack, brown sugar, opium and poppy husk have been getting treatment at 26 outpatient opioid assisted treatment (OOAT) centres of the state as per the data released by the health department. The centres were opened in Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Moga districts of the state in October 2017 under a pilot project of the health department and a special task force (STF) wing of the Punjab Police to treat drug addicts.

As per the data, 2,322 patients have been registered in Moga, 551 in Tarn Taran and 655 in Amritsar district during the past five months.

Officials of the department said that they register opioid patients through the online process. “We give registered patients a unique identification code. The patients by using the same computer generated code, can get daily dose from any OOAT centre of the state,” they said.

Dr Ranbir Singh Rana, in-charge of the Tarn Taran facility, and one of the doctors involved in the project, said under the OOAT project, a dose of buprenorphine, an opioid partial agonist, is being given to the patients and it takes around a year to cure the patient. He said patients are visiting the centres daily to get medicine because there is no provision of giving medicines for home. The patients take the medicine in the presence of the doctors, he said.

Now, after getting good results of centres in three districts, the department is all set to inaugurate 50 more such centres in other districts of the state, including in 8 central jails this month said Dr Rana. “We have also a plan to open such centres in 200 community health centres,” he added.