The Excise & Narcotics Minister, Er. Lalrinawma today gave a statement at his office chamber at MINECO where he made a clarion call on the need to fight against the menace of drugs in the society collectively.

The Minister refuted the recent rumours on social media platform that showed video of some Mizo youths behaving like they are high on the Zombie Drug, Fentanyl and; affirmed that The Excise & Narcotics Department immediately investigated into the matter and confirmed on April 6, 2023 that the youths in the video clips were not using Fentanyl.

He stated that on further interrogation, the mentioned youths stated that they have not even heard of the Zombie Drug-Fentanyl; and that they were using a cocktail of heroin and three other street drugs.

Er. Lalrinawma stated that there is no denying of the fact that the state in negatively bearing the high availability of drugs. He said that there are 11 Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts sponsored by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India; as well as 37 hospitals in the state who are having substance abuse patients.

It is worth mentioning that during April,2022 – March, 2023, there are a record of 1,006 drug addict patients at the 11 Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts, with 16,920 individual counseling undertaken and 4,367 group counseling taken up.

Among the 1,006 addicts at the 11 Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts, 311 patients are HIV+, with 269 undergoing ART.

The Minister also stated that under the First Phase of the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (Drug Free India Campaign), three districts of Mizoram- Aizawl, Champhai and Kolasib have been included, with the campaign reaching out to 1,39,335 youths including 88,443 females.