The Youth of Kashmir are becoming Lost in the Darkness of Drug Addiction without the Light of the Khilafah

News:

On the 5th of June, the BBC reported on the “alarming increase in drug abuse in Kashmir”. More and more teenage men can be found outside the only rehabilitation centre in the Indian administers Kashmir, queuing with their parents to receive medicines from the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) to help reduce their withdrawal symptoms and prevent the transmission of infectious diseases. In March, a federal minister told parliament that nearly a million people in Jammu and Kashmir - around 8% of the region's population - use drugs of some kind, including cannabis, opioids or sedatives. Experts attribute this to several factors, including a shortage of jobs and mental health issues arising from living in a conflict zone.

Comment:

Experts analysing the situation attribute this growth in to several factors, including a shortage of jobs and mental health issues arising from living in a conflict zone. There are women who are becoming increasingly caught up in addiction cycles and this has worrying implications for the future of the region's family structure and children.

Corruption and the cooperation of law enforcement with the drug dealers is also a great problem a region that already suffers from chaotic a political climate with the war between India and Pakistan.

The cure for this nightmare of social disease is a stable and powerful system that removes the freedom of criminals to run the country, including career politicians with only self-interest as their motive for power.
Drugs and intoxications are haram and there is no room for “recreational” use as discussed in the Quran;

[يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ إِنَّمَا الْخَمْرُ وَالْمَيْسِرُ وَالأَنصَابُ وَالأَزْلاَمُ رِجْسٌ مِّنْ عَمَلِ الشَّيْطَانِ فَاجْتَنِبُوهُ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ]

“O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants (khamr), gambling, [sacrificing on] stone altars [to other than God], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.” [Al-Maidah: 90].

The harsh punishment of drug trafficking and drug taking would be applied in the Khilafah (Caliphate) together with the comprehensive education system that teaches productivity and Iman. The economic system would also remove the economic dilemmas of joblessness and poverty policies that exist due to the poor management of the region.

The limited resources of the NGO’s working in the area are but a bandage on the cancer of living without the Deen of Islam active in life.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Imrana Mohammad
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir