AIZAWL, Jan 2— Drug abuse killed at least 95 people including seven women in Mizoram during 2002, top state Excise department officials said here today, reports PTI.
The officials, quoting departmental records, told PTI that while 90 people died due to abuse of Spasmo Proxyvon, a prominent painkiller, four people including son of the former state Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla were killed by heroin and one died due to abuse of other psychotropic drugs.
The officials, however, admitted that the toll in the drug-related deaths might be much higher as there was a strong possibility of many parents concealing the reasons of the deaths of their offspings.
According to the Excise department records, at least 770 people were killed by drugs in the state since 1984 when the first drug-related death was identified and Spasmo Proxyvon remained the main killer of Mizo youths since 1988.
A census of drug addicts conducted by the department in 2000 showed that there were 4,025 addicts including 143 women in the state.
The officials, quoting the addict census figure, said that addicts of the dreaded heroin numbered 94 (2.34 per cent) while Spasmo Proxyvon addicts numbering 3,486 constituted majority of the addicts using ganja, 260 people are abusing other psychotropic substances like Nitrazepam, Diazepam an other cough syrups, they said.