It wasn’t an easy decision, but the 18-year-old daughter of an IT professional knew what she had to do — save herself from self-destruction. The teenager was addicted to cannabis and decided to undergo de-addiction therapy at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, Powai. Doctors claim that there is a rise in the number of girls falling prey to cannabis addiction, and Powai seem to be the epicentre.
Dr Harish Shetty, senior psychiatrist at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, said, “In the past two years, the number of girls coming with cannabis (weed/grass) addiction has risen by 10 times. In the last four months alone, five girls with cannabis addiction have visited me and this 18-year-old is one of them, whose parents are still unaware of her addiction.”
Dr Shetty further added that easy availability of cannabis in Powai has led to this dangerous trend. The situation is so grim that the hospital and the Lakers Club have launched a programme to educate and make parents aware of the issue. “Certain housing societies have issued circulars to their members warning them that children use refuge areas to smoke drugs. But this is not enough. We need to remove the stigma attached with the addiction and help each other to curb this menace,” said Mamta Asthana, project co-ordinator of Lakers.
Asthana asserted that boys and girls between 13-20 years of age are seen smoking in public places.
Dr YA Matcheswalla, in-charge of GT Hospital’s de-addiction unit and head of the psychiatry department at Masina Hospital, Byculla, said drugs were increasingly getting popular among youths belonging to the upper middle class families in south Mumbai, Bandra, Juhu, Powai and Andheri-Lokhandwala. “I feel that the boy-girl ratio in cannabis addiction is 8:1, but now, more girls are getting addicted to it,” said Dr Matcheswalla, adding that it was not just the easy availability of the drug but also the wrong information circulating on the internet about the drug that was adding to the problem.
“Girls have said that their friends told them it is a herb, and that it enhances creativity. The fact is that this drug makes you lethargic, demotivates and defocuses you, and induces psychosis in many cases,” said Matcheswalla.
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