Srinagar, Dec. 3 -- Jammu and Kashmir's drug abuse and trafficking crisis has reached a tipping point. The recent consultation with NITI Aayog is a welcome but long overdue step. For too long, the menace has been treated as a peripheral issue, addressed with half-measures and fragmented responses. What the Valley needs now is not another round of strategies on paper but a radical shift in implementation, accountability and community engagement.

The Union Territory has been grappling with a silent epidemic of substance abuse for years. Reports suggest that more than 10 percent of Kashmir's youth are directly or indirectly affected, with heroin and prescription opioids emerging as the most abused substances. The National Crime Records Bure...