Juvenile crimes directly linked to drug abuse

Youngsters addicted to tobacco, drugs and alcohol are more likely to commit violent crimes such as rape and murder, a medical study has found, underscoring a major concern in a country with likely the highest number of street children in the world.

The report submitted to the ministries of health as well as social justice and empowerment found that the greater the involvement in substance abuse, more severe is the violence and criminality.

Doctors have noted a growing trend of juveniles committing serious crimes such as rape, murder, attempt to murder and burglary. As there was no reliable data associating substance use and criminality among children in Delhi, the experts decided to do a research study.

IHABS REPORT

The review was conducted by the city's Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), department of psychiatry at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute on over 500 inmates at the Prayas observation home for boys.

"Out of the total juvenilesunder-enquiry booked under different crimes, over 87 per cent had a history of substance use," said Shridhar Sharma, member, managing committee of Prayas. "Consumption of tobacco and cannabis were higher when compared to other drugs. Consumption of psychotropic drugs though relatively lesser was related with more serious crimes."

Sharma, also a former top official in the union health ministry, said a drug-crime correlation was noted among consumption of cannabis with murder, inhalants with rape and opioids with snatching related offences.

DRUG ABUSE LINKED TO VIOLENT CRIMES

Use of solvents or inhalants such as typewriter thinners and whiteners were reported to be high among the juveniles convicted of rape when compared to other crimes.

Similarly, cannabis intake was rampant among those held guilty for murder. Also, consumption of opioids and heroin was higher in convicts of mugging and snatching-related crimes.

However, intake of psychotropic drugs was common only with crimes of more serious nature such as murder, rape, snatching, and burglary.

LARGEST NUMBER OF STREET KIDS

According to the UNICEF estimates, at least 100 million children live in the streets across the world, with indications that the largest number of them are in India. These children can be seen selling trinkets, picking rags, polishing shoes, working in vehicle repair shops, or serving food in roadside restaurants.

The national Capital alone has approximately one lakh street children, and substance abuse is reported as a major health problem in this segment of the population.

93 PER CENT STREET CHILDREN CONSUMED DRUGS

A study by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights on substance abuse by kids showed last year that 100 per cent of the children in conflict with the law were drug abusers, while 95.5 per cent of them staying in child care institutions were on drugs and 93 per cent of street children consumed narcotics. The study also said 88 per cent of the children consumed drugs due to "peer pressure".

The increasing use of pharmaceutical drugs for addiction prompted the government to separately tackle the menace of alcoholism and medicine abuse. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment two year ago came up with guidelines called the National Policy for Drug Demand Reduction (NPDDR), 2014, to independently address the two challenges.

As there is no ban on the sale and purchase of alcohol, except in states where there is clear prohibition, the Centre has formulated separate policies on drug and alcohol abuse.

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