'If voted to power, will legalize drugs for addicts'

from indiatimes

TNN | Apr 23, 2014, 06.10 AM IST




LUDHIANA: At a time when other candidates are talking about drug addiction as a menace, those hooked to drugs may find solace in the promises of independent candidate Rajiv Kalra. If voted to power, he would seek opening of government authorized vends for selling of poppy husk. Claiming that he was not supporting drugs, the 42-year-old first timer, says he was only trying to deal with the issue of drugs in a "more realistic manner". 

Adding that he was not promising anything illogical, Kalra says he would seek setting up of government authorized vends in Punjab in lines with Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which he said have been set up with a purpose to help drug addicts, who can not be cured. "If such vends can be in other states why can't these be set up in Punjab?" he asks. 

Kalra maintained that other candidates and politicians were doing mere lip service by criticizing the drug menace and not making any efforts in finding a practical solution to it. "Several people in the rural areas have been taking poppy husk and opium for the medicinal purpose. These drugs, taken in a limited quantity are not harmful when compared to new age drugs. These drugs have a drastic impact on their life and have destroyed several lives and families in the villages of Punjab," he sums up. 

Kalra claimed that the objective of such authorised vends was not to encourage drug addiction but help out addicts, who could not be cured by the doctors and were thus given licenses on which they could get some limited quantity, for their survival. 

"In the first place, I would get free treatment for the drug addicts. But for those who could not be treated, I would seek license system," clarified Kalra. Kalra claimed, he has never consumed drugs in his life and the sole objective of him contesting the poll was to help people who are drug addicts. "I am contesting elections for these people who are suffering and it is only on their insistence that I jumped into fray," claims Kalra. 

Kalra may have shown good intentions while making promise but his claims have not gone down well with many people. "There may be such provisions in other states, but any such move is not going to help the cause in the long run. For a state like Punjab where drug addiction is a major issue, providing authorised vends may backfire," said advocate Deepjot Singh. 

An official in the civil hospital informed that these licenses were given to the habitual opium users so that they can be provided with a limited quantity of opium. The quantity was to be reduced in a scientific manner for their de addiction. However later de addiction centers were started thus practice was stopped in the year 1996.