LAHORE, Aug 24: The provincial committee on drug addiction has submitted its final report to the health department, containing a comprehensive plan to curb the menace and rehabilitate addicts, says a handout issued here.

Punjab Institute of Mental Health (PIMH) Lahore executive-director and committee chairman, Brig Dr Saeed A Akhtar (retired) said while preparing the report, the body had studied systems adopted by Malaysia, USA, European and other countries.

The report covered five aspects, which included mapping of addicts, registration of addicts through a proposed proforma and their treatment at teaching hospitals besides DHQ, THQ hospitals and even RHCs and BHUs, the handout said.

As rehabilitation of addicts could take four weeks to three months or even a year, it was necessary to keep them in a suitable atmosphere, besides providing support to their dependants, if needed.

Imparting training in different skills and professions for earning livelihood was also an important feature of the plan. The fifth and the last aspect of the report laid stress on monitoring of the project at each stage from sub-division up to the provincial levels.

“If this task is taken seriously, then it will be pertinent to establish a hierarchy, comprising experts having the will to run the affairs in the right direction,” the handout said.

The committee consisted of Punjab director general health services Dr Aslam Chaudhary, Allama Iqbal medical college (AIMC) psychiatry head Dr Saad Bashir, Dr Nasir Saeed Khan, PIMH consultant psychiatrist Dr Khalid Mughal and AIMC, Sialkot, consultant psychiatrist Dr Shamshad Ahmad Gill.