Once a drug addict, a 27-year-old Barnala resident becomes Panchayat member after treatment

Once a drug addict, a 27-year-old Barnala resident becomes Panchayat member after treatment

Jasbir Kapoor/ royalpatiala.in/ Barnala

Drug Abuse Prevention Officer (DAPO), a campaign of Captain Amarinder Singh led Punjab Government, has shown positive results in Barnala as the drug addicts are being treated sympathetically in the OOAT Centers. Having faced the tag of a drug addict, a 27-year-old youth of Barnala district has also got him treated and presently, he has elected as a Panchayat member in the recent Panchayati elections.

While narating his story, Parveen (name changed) disclosed that he had consumed the drugs at the age of 20 for the first time at Chandigarh. He added that his friends sweetly forced him to take ‘Chitta’ but there after he habitually visited even Amritsar to purchase the drugs. “To manage the cash for the drugs, I took all the responsibility of the agriculture of our house and started dealing with whole income and receiving cash directly from arhtiya (commission agent). After some time, my need grew and I was unable to get sufficient funds for my drugs. Then I took a poultry farm of around 10,000 birds also. Whole income of my family business started getting pumped for my drugs which led to dispute with my parents,” He said. He himself got over with the heat of situation but could not help even himself.

Parveen said that one fine day he came to know that the local police had started preparing lists of drug addicts and had also established contact with his parents which led to their refusal of money for drugs. They also started forcing him to get admitted in drug de-addiction center for the required treatment.

Soon after the pressure of the family mounted, he came in the contact of Guardian of Governance (GOG) of his village and he encouraged him to start de-addiction treatment. “I got myself admitted in de-addiction centre for almost a month and after that I also took the medicine course for almost 6 months,” Parveen revealed. He added that now he is completely free from the drugs and his parents have also got his dope test done which was negative. Parveen appealed other people, who are under the influence of drugs, to get them treated as it is all wastage of health and money.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Barnala Tej Partap Singh Phoolka said that awareness activities were being regularly organised in the district to make the people aware of the ill effects of drugs. He added that if any district resident wanted to get him treated, he could contact with his concerned SDM office or GOG or directly in the OOAT clinic. He also assured that police would also not investigate any drug addict who will be voluntarily coming for treatment.