Sensitise fraternity to stamp out drug menace in med colleges: Experts

Hyderabad: In the wake of recent news about doctors using drugs even in medical colleges like Osmania, the healthcare experts have stressed on the need to educate and sensitise the doctors community on drugs usage and also wanted strict disciplinary action against those responsible to put an end to this menace.

The healthcare experts were astonished that the drug culture, which was limited to some private colleges, has now spread to colleges like Osmania and Gandhi. Recently, the sleuths of Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TGANB), along with Sultan Bazar Police, arrested three persons including two doctors for possessing Ganja. Police said eight to ten students were consuming ganja from the peddlers.

In another incident, the Telangana’s Excise Special Task Force (STF) raided the residence of a post graduate doctor John Paul, who was also a consumer and seized six varieties of high value narcotics with an estimated value of Rs 3 lakh. The STF seized OG Kush, MDMA, cocaine and hash oil from the doctor's premises. The STF has said that Paul’s house was not just a storage point but a distribution centre as the doctor and his friends used it as a discreet and secure location.

However, they said that there were many reasons for the spread of the menace and they call this as systemic disorder rather than a problem and stressed on the need to stringent measures with strong message that the students will have to face severe consequences and might spoil their future.

In the recent past, when one of the medical students was found consuming prohibited substances in Nizamabad, the police immediately counselled the students and warned about their future, which helped the doctor to stay away from that menace. However, this will not happen everywhere as there is lack of monitoring by the management, opine the experts.

Gandhi Medical College faculty, Dr Kiran Madhala said that there are several reasons for spread of the drug menace. It is because of non-monitoring by the management within the premises, peer pressure, and stress. To address this, the management should have a mentorship programme where one faculty should adopt a student and he should be continuously in consultation with whatever problem the doctor is facing. This mentorship programme has been made mandatory from 2023 as per CBMB curriculum but not many colleges are implementing it in letter and spirit. He said that there should be strict guidelines, continuous monitoring and vigilance. It will be difficult for a warden to manage all the students, hence, the mentorship programme would be helpful.

Dr Kiran said that cognitive dissonance is quite common in the first year and it will gradually increase if not checked. If there are regular interactions, we can identify black ships,” said Dr Kiran.

The Telangana Medical Council Vice Chairman Dr G Srinivas said that there should be regular monitoring on the behaviour of students in medical colleges. The NMC Act 2002 guidelines prescribe there should be anti-drug campaigning in the medical colleges.

Dr Srinivas said that even the usage of drugs is a violation of code of ethics. The doctors have to maintain good conduct with the patients. As per the PG Medical Board and UG Medical Board, if a doctor is consuming illegal drugs and alcohol, he can be suspended or terminated. He said that the NMC should take stringent action, coordinating with medical students, junior doctors to sensitize the doctors, he said.