Ministry to Formulate National Policy on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Prevention

In order to deal effectively with issues related to the prevention of alcoholism and drug abuse, the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar said that the Government will be formulating a comprehensive National Policy.

Addressing the 1st meeting of the National Consultative Committee on Drug De-addiction and rehabilitation, Kumar announced that soon a sub-committee would be made to make the first draft proposal of the National Policy here today.

The sub-committee will be given two months to submit its report. This will also include suggestions given by all the participants from different States. In fact, such sub-committees will be made in different States to provide region specific output.

This policy would cover a wide range of issues such as prevention, treatment and rehabilitation aspects as well as institutional mechanisms and convergence of programmes in order to address the problem.

The Government has been making concerted efforts at all levels to tackle illicit production, trafficking and distribution of drugs.

A comprehensive, balanced and co-ordinated approach, encompassing supply control and demand reduction has been adopted. In this regard, it is pertinent to mention that whereas supply reduction is under the purview of the enforcement agencies with the Department of Revenue as the nodal Department, the demand reduction strategy falls in the domain of the Social Sector and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Source-ANI
TAN/M