Aizawl: At least 67 people, including six women, have died due to substance abuse in Mizoram in 2020. Among those dead, most have been found to be guilty of heroin abuse. A government official said that the number may be more as some victims of substance abuse has not been reported. Mizoram had reported 55 drug-related fatalities in 2019.
“All the 67 people, who died of drug abuse last year, were addicted to heroin. The Mizoram government has been taking several measures to curb the menace,” said the excise and narcotics department official. “Most of the drugs, especially heroin, have been smuggled from Myanmar,” he added.
Mizoram is sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh. The state has been grappling with drug abuse since 1984. It was that year when the state reported its first heroin death.
The hilly state shares 722 km of the international border with Myanmar and Bangladesh. Until 2015, spasmo proxyvon, which is used as a pain- killer, had caused maximum drug-related deaths in Mizoram
With an increasing supply of heroin from Myanmar and neighbouring states, it has become the main killer drug, informed the official.
The excise and narcotics department’s data showed that at least 1,646 people, including 193 women, have died of drug abuse in Mizoram since 1984.
In a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease the international borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh have been sealed since March 2020. , It has considerably reduced smuggling of drug and alcohol last year, the official added.