Srinagar, May 15 -- Kashmir's battle against drug addiction has finally entered the centre of public life, and the timing could not have been more important.

What remained hidden inside homes for years had already begun damaging the social foundation of the valley. Parents were watching young sons drift into addiction. Families were spending savings on treatment and recovery. Marriage alliances were collapsing after whispers about substance abuse surfaced around households. A growing generation of young people had started losing health, direction and dignity to narcotics.

That painful reality explains why the "Nasha Mukt Jammu and Kashmir Abhiyaan" launched under Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has received such a strong public response...