Drug addiction in Kashmir seems to be spiralling out of control, with the Valley administration on Saturday conceding that the number of addicts has tripled in the last three years.

The disturbing statistics undercut the government’s narrative that the scrapping of special status in 2019 put the region on the path to all-around development.

Kashmir's divisional commissioner Anshul Garg on Saturday said drug addiction had become a huge problem for the region, with the consumption of heroin rising among the youths.

"In the last three or three and a half years, we have seen the problem multiplying three times (in Kashmir). It is a warning signal for all of us,” Garg told reporters here after participating in a programme organised by the government-run Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS).

Garg did not reveal the latest data on the number of addicts. A parliamentary panel report in 2023 had revealed that 13.5 lakh people in Jammu and Kashmir, or 10 per cent of the Union Territory's population, were consuming drugs. They included five lakh addicts using opioids.

The divisional commissioner suggested that lakhs could have fallen prey to the addiction over the years, despite the much-touted campaign against “narco-terrorism” — a new narrative that gives equal weightage to drugs and militancy.

The government claims that Pakistan is trafficking drugs to fund militancy.

In July, the Union home ministry told Parliament that around 10,000 individuals had been arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in Jammu and Kashmir between 2018 and 2022.

Garg said the youths in educational institutions, colleges and coaching centres were getting hooked to heroin.

“The consumption of heroin is increasing and it is a huge concern for us. We need to fight this together as a society,” he said.

The divisional commissioner said a massive drug de-addiction campaign was underway in Jammu and Kashmir and the chief secretary was monitoring it.

Many in Kashmir believe that the Union Territory was following in the footsteps of Punjab, where drug addiction has spread like a pandemic.

The administration has roped in the Ulema, Islamic scholars and imams to launch a grassroots campaign against substance abuse. A few years back, Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had joined the campaign and organised seminars to weed out the menace. The scholars have been instructed to use mosque pulpits to spread awareness.