Though Nagaland is officially a dry State for the past 30 years, alcohol consumption, among other substance abuse, is very much prevalent, especially during festive seasons and elections.
This was the observation of District Hospital Dimapur (DHD) senior psychiatrist Dr C Kezo. He was speaking as guest speaker at the launch of North Eat Artist Network (NEAN), an initiative under Nagaland Liquor Total Prohibition (NLTP) Act, 1989, at Tourist Lodge here on Friday.
Kezo said alcohol-related ailments in the State could be viewed as “evergreen disease” due to the huge number of patients that DHD received all through the year, adding 50% of indoor patients suffered from ailments due to excess consumption of alcohol.
He said consumption of liquor by alcoholics peaked when they were between the ages of 18 and 60 years.
Mentioning that alcohol consumption had an adverse impact on the society, the senior psychiatrist pointed out that it was one of the oldest psycho active substance/drugs that had always posed a serious threat to public health. And besides medication, motivation and encouragement were also required for an alcoholic to help overcome the problem, he added.
Kezo admitted that prohibition had only increased sale of spurious alcohol by bootleggers. He stressed that if the NLTP Act was not implemented properly, bootleggers would take advantage.
Referring to shortage of manpower in the psychiatric department of DHD, Kezo said there were only six beds at the District Detox Centre (DDC), while urging the government to focus on the growing instances of alcohol consumption as it had become an important public health issue.
He also expounded Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), saying it was a chronic relapsing disease characterised by uncontrolled drinking and pre-occupation with alcohol. It was alcoholism in which the individual was unable to control consumption due to both physical and emotional dependence on alcohol.
Speaking about NEAN NLTP initiative on the occasion, campaign in-charge Toshiba Jamir claimed that NLTP Act introduced in 1989 had achieved its purpose. He admitted that there were issues related to alcoholism that required systematic intervention, besides policies in strengthening implementation of the Act.
“The ever increase in the number of alcoholics in the State was an indication of the low level of public awareness and understanding of NLTP Act. And the inflow of spurious liquor in the State posed a grave threat as it endangered many lives,” he pointed out.
According to Jamir, there were three approaches to address substance addiction – harm reduction, demand reduction and supply reduction. As supply reduction hardly gave positive outcome in many areas as NLTP Act primarily aimed at supply reduction, he said there was a need to focus on both demand reduction and harm reduction. This, he added, would lead to understanding of the ground realities more deeply with facts and figures, leading to a healthier discussion.
Mentioning that NEAN was initiating community-based awareness intervention activities on alcoholism, Jamir said the organisation put main focus on NLTP Act under its slogan “Take the first step for alcohol recovery” with the theme “Taking the lead towards deeper understanding”.
The objective was to bring about a positive and balanced understanding by generating awareness about the Act, he added.
By bringing NLTP Act into public domain for public discussion and raising awareness level about rampant alcohol abuse in Naga society would strengthen implementation of the Act, he asserted.
The initiative of NEAN would primarily focus on health issues and social problems associated with alcoholism in consonance with the needs of users. The initiative would comprise of prevention education and awareness programmes, setting up group support, sensitisation programmes, counselling, case study, information, education & communication and detoxification camps.
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