Heroin and other drugs in India

Punjab, a state in India is the home of the colorful turban and the golden temple, but it is also a state that has a serious drug problem. India is the largest consumer of heroin in South Asia according a United Nations 2011 drug and crime report. A shocking statistic about this state is that is has one of the lowest poverty rates in the country because of the fertile farmland and abundant water supply. A 20 year old that used to take up to 10 pills a day said that at least half of the students at his school were taking drugs when he was there. At a rehab hospital is another man who said his drug of choice was heroin and that it was never a problem finding the drug because 20 to 25 families were selling it in one village alone. State officials have estimated that round 50 percent of the population between the ages of 18 and 35 are using drugs illegally. Statistics have shown that around one person is dying every eight minutes in Punjab of drug addiction. There is a fear in this state that if nothing changes that a whole generation will be stuck in a cycle of drug abuse and dying.

 http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/08/world/asia/india-heroin/index.html?hpt=wo_mid

This is a problem that is affecting the entire world but it seems it is to an extreme here. If nothing changes then the whole state of Punjab will crumble because people will start going crazy trying to get the drugs they want. This will also affect the murder rate because people will start killing one another for drugs because people will lose all of the money they have buying drugs and will have no other way of getting it besides killing for it. Authorities need to take the right steps here and try to confiscate as much as they can. I know that there will always be drugs available, but it sounds like they have an abundance of it that could definitely be controlled. The article did not say that authorities were taking any steps so I’m not sure if they are trying to do anything about it now or not but if they don’t, like the article stated, they will be stuck in a terrible drug cycle and overdose.