Activists demand a full-fledged drug de-addiction centre in Kakinada

Kakinada: Activists working in the arena of drug addiction have urged the government to set-up a full-fledged drug de-addiction centre at the Government General Hospital at Kakinada on Friday. In this region, the government has enforced a partial ban on alcohol.

NGO activists interacted with the doctors from the hospital on Friday morning and examined the possibility of creating more awareness among the addicts by explaining them as to how drug abuse was like a mental illness. The doctors and para-medics interacted with the patients admitted to the de-addiction centre.

Dasasarlapudi Ramanaraju, the founder of the Madhyapana Nishedha Porata Samiti, said as per the Mental Health Act 2017, a drug de-addiction centre ought to have a physiologist, three medical officers, six nurses, a clinical physiologist, a social worker and an acupuncture therapist.

Currently, only two doctors are working in the Department of Psychiatry in a government hospital. Patients have to buy their medicines from outside. The lack of adequate doctors and staff has become the bane of de-addiction management, he lamented. People who come here to get rid of alcohol and other more dangerous intoxicants like drugs are not served here.

District Collector D Muralidhar Reddy has taken action to set up a full-fledged drug de-addiction center by appointing appropriate Doctors staff and setting up boards and providing medical services to those seeking relief from alcohol addiction through campaign.

The Chief Secretary of the committee, Hassan Sharif, said that Rs 500 crore has been allocated to the Drug de-Addiction Centers in the state government's budget. Ahmed and others were members of the committee.