New Delhi (Sputnik) — The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) carried out a government-mandated study which revealed that 57 million citizens are dependent on alcohol in India, while some 850,000 people consume illicit drugs, the ANI media agency reported.
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The study's findings were released by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC), an agency functioning under the AIIMS umbrella.
Researchers surveyed 200,111 households from 186 districts and a total of 473,569 people were interviewed.
Professor of psychiatry at the NDDTC, Dr. Atul Ambekar, said that heroin abuse has increased many fold, with a large number of addicts in India not undergoing any treatment.
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Some 10 medical colleges with 15 non-government organisations were involved in the survey led by the NDDTC, which began in 2017 and ended in October 2018. The previous nation-wide survey on drug abuse was conducted in 2000-2001, with the results published in 2004.
