Srinagar, July 8 -- By Mohammad Ilyas Bhat

I walked into a local medical store years ago and watched a young man purchase three tablets of Proxyvon Spas along with a bottle of Iodex.

The transaction seemed ordinary, but moments later, outside, the man spread the Iodex over a piece of bread and consumed it like buttered toast.

I stood stunned.

That scene marked my first direct brush with the grim reality of addiction in Kashmir.

I dismissed the episode as rare back then, but events since prove how wrong I was.

Today the valley counts more than 54,000 drug addicts.

A 2022 survey by the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Srinagar put the number of people dependent on opioids at about 52,400, with heroin figuring prominent...