Chandigarh, India July 18 : That drugs are easily available in prisons across Punjab has become more evident after a surprise screening of about 6,000 inmates in 11 jails found most of them hooked on one drug or the other in Indian state Punjab. The situation was alarming in jails as over 40 per cent of the inmates had enrolled themselves for de-addiction, reports Indian media. In Barnala district, 252 (45 per cent) of the screened 566 inmates had tested positive for drugs.
More surprising was that a large number of prisoners who didn’t have any recorded history of addiction nor were they enrolled for treatment in jail de-addiction centres tested positive for various substances. On July 15, the prison department conducted the screening in the jails of Nabha, Mansa, Barnala and Muktsar, sub jails in Malerkotla, Moga, Fazilka and Patti, the Nabha Open Jail and the Hoshiarpur Central Jail. The same exercise was earlier done in Ropar jail.
Most of the prisoners were found addicted to pain relievers such as morphine, tramadol and buprenorphine.
Interestingly, the jail staff had no record of addiction of around 10 per cent of the inmates who were found positive. A senior health functionary said that the findings of the testing indicated the prisoners were getting drugs easily inside jails.