The positive face of policing

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Going beyond the call of duty in law and order maintenance, traffic control and crime detection, the Thiruvananthapuram city police have set an exemplary model through counselling and putting youngsters back on the path of a healthy life.

As per the information available with the police, the city police have rehabilitated in the past year as many as 76 young students - aged between 18 and 22 - who were deeply addicted to drugs. The city police undertook a programme of counselling and de-addiction treatment.

According to Sheen Tharayil, Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Anti-Narcotic Cell of the city police, the police teams identified drug-addicted students at the time of crime detection or seizure and they were given an initial counselling by a police team.

“The primary counselling is done by specially trained police officers in the control room. They are trained to create awareness among the affected students and bring them back to normal life. But it is only for the drug users who are in the early stage of addiction. If the students who picked by the police are hardcore addicts, we either refer them to a detailed counselling session at the psychiatry department of Medical College Hospital or admit them to de-addiction centres,” Sheen said.

He added many teenagers are falling victim to the trap of drug mafia. The counselling centre was introduced by the city police at the police control room last year. Four de-addiction centres in the state are in tie-ups with the city police where addicts are taken with the co-operation of parents. After completing the treatment, they are sent home along with their parents.     

The police said this was only a first step to prevent the substance abuse and more efforts are on the way to wipe-out the menace.According to a shadow police officer, the curiosity of teenagers to try out ganja and other narcotic drugs soon leads to an addiction and there arises a situation where their pocket-money is no longer sufficient to buy regular doses. This leads to their getting trapped in the clutches of drug mafia and eventually becoming peddlers.

Special anti-narcotic squads have been established in the city police for detection and prevention of drug abuse. V Suresh Kumar, Control room Assistant Commissioner has been entrusted as the nodal officer in the district.Counselling to trace and track When contacted, City Police Commissioner P Prakash said an identification process is on to trace drug addicts in city colleges. 

“We have started the process to identify addicts. As we have started anti-narcotic clubs in colleges, it could help us to make the enforcement much easier. Once we identify the addicts, we could also trace the drug supplier.

Though the full-fledged functioning of the clubs will begin only next academic year, we have started strengthening the enforcement side. Counselling is part of awareness and prevention. In fact, we need to cut off the demand rather than the supply of drugs. The demand could be lessened through this counseling programmes. There are more programmes on the anvil to eradicate drugs,” said Prakash.

76 Students addicted to drugs rehabilitated by the city police