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Thursday, October 23, 2025
TopicDrug addiction

Topic: drug addiction

Punjab’s war on drugs is an asymmetric fight. Poor infra, not enough doctors or data

Punjab reported 33,000 drug-related cases between 2022 & 2024, second only to Kerala. While a police crackdown is limited to choking the supply of drugs, the demand remains intact.

Punjab’s booming de-addiction industry has spawned far greater threats—illegal centres, monopolies

Amidst a deepening drug crisis, Punjab’s crackdown reveals a grim underbelly of unlicensed de-addiction centres exploiting desperate families and flouting regulations.

No. of Haryana youths reporting at drug de-addiction centres surged almost 5-fold in last 5 yrs

Assembly told that Sirsa, with 7,020 affected youths this year, has just 80 beds in 2 facilities. Panchkula’s 10-bed general hospital woefully insufficient for its 13,442 cases.

Now Haryana has a drug problem too. And unique ways of fighting it

Haryana villagers have taken the fight against drugs into their own hands. Vigilante groups across the state are naming and shaming users and peddlers, but caste plays a part too.

More Indians getting hooked on opioid painkillers. Doctors warn of possible ‘pharma opioid epidemic’

Addiction treatment centres across India are observing an uptick in patients grappling with abuse of opium-derived painkillers like Tramadol, specialists say.

New drug to treat cannabis addiction shows promising results, no withdrawal symptoms in trials

French biotech firm developed & tested drug which blocks human body’s cannabinoid receptor pathway that causes addiction, according to report in Nature Medicine journal.

‘Fancy cars, guns, clout’ — in Amritpal’s militia, ‘brainwashed’ youth & addicts in awe of his ‘rebel’ image

Residents of Jallupur Khera village said Amritpal's influence extended only to the youth, and elderly members of the village had long since distanced themselves from his talks of Khalistan.

Smack & ‘solution’ are consuming Delhi’s homeless kids. For them it’s a refuge

Chasing the next high is the only thing that ‘makes life worth living’ for many of Delhi’s street children, some as young as 8. Most don’t want to be ‘rescued'.

Scientists identify brain pattern for drug & food craving, can be used to diagnose addiction

Dubbed ‘Neurobiological Craving Signature’, this brain pattern can track the degree of craving and differentiate drug users from non-users.

Licensed to torture: How drug rehabs in Himachal use beatings to ‘treat’ addicts

Fenced off with barbed wire and guarded by pitbulls, many drug rehabs are more like prisons than hospitals. Breaking the rules could mean sleep deprivation, stripping, assault.

On Camera

In Bihar, BJP is courting upper castes—a clear shift from its 2020 strategy

With two parties led by Dalit leaders now part of NDA, the BJP is hopeful of winning a large number of reserved constituencies.

Boom to bust: Haunted by Ketan Parekh saga, 117-yr-old Calcutta Stock Exchange’s future lies in limbo

CSE, one of India’s oldest bourses, is edging towards a voluntary exit. It could never recover from market manipulation scam that caused a payment crisis at exchange back in 2001. 

From battle of wits and daring air strikes to artillery fury, new details emerge of Operation Sindoor

Fresh details of operation conducted by IAF, Army have come out in gazette notification giving citations of those who were awarded Vir Chakra for their bravery.

CJI, IPS, IAS & Homebound: A wake-up call 75 years in the making

Education, reservations, govt jobs are meant to bring equality and dignity. That we are a long way from that is evident in the shoe thrown at the CJI and the suicide of Haryana IPS officer. The film Homebound has a lesson too.