30% people use drugs in Nagaland: Police

Drugs in Nagaland

Dimapur: Nagaland Director General (Prisons, Home Guards and Civil Defence) Rupin Sharma on Monday said that 30 per cent of Nagaland’s population, according to his estimation, abuses drugs.

“The magnitude of the problem in the state is very high,” Sharma said while addressing the annual inter-school sports meet of the Dimapur unit of the All Nagaland Private Schools Association (ANPSA) at the Don Bosco Higher Secondary School Sports Complex in Dimapur. He said.

Noting that many children also take drugs, he asked students to inform their teachers or the police if a friend of theirs is into drugs.
He urged the students to “help your friends who take drugs by informing your teachers or the police otherwise you will encourage them to continue using drugs.”

“You are young and you don’t have implications for bad things,” he told the students and asked them to stay away from drugs and alcohol.

Sharma suggested that the school management authorities and ANPSA should work together to develop a standard procedure and establish a support system to deal with drug addict students.
He also said that there is a need to devise some programs to curb the scourge of drugs among students. “We should try to reform them and not punish them,” he added.

The IPS officer asked the students to change tracks when they were on the wrong foot.

He said that schools are not only for learning but also for learning and re-learning some things.

Nagaland being a tribal state, he also asked the students to do away with tribal mentality and become better human beings.
Sharma, who has taken several initiatives to improve the lives of jails and prisoners in the state, said he has distributed 4,000 books to the jail inmates in the state for reading and gaining knowledge.

He asked for books from school pass-out students to be given to jail inmates.

ANPSA Dimapur Unit President Dr. Andrew Ahutu Seema also spoke on the occasion.