Buprenorphine pill: The pill used to treat drug addicts is now the last hope for drug addicts. There are many people among them who have given up other drugs and are now addicted to these pills. Due to which this pill is the most discussed in government and private de-addiction centers of Punjab and the government spends the most on it.
If we look at the latest figures, in the last five and a half years, 127.64 crore tablets have been supplied to drug addicts through government and private centers in Punjab, on which about Rs 550 crore has been spent. The Punjab government has spent Rs 282.51 crore from the government treasury in five years on buprenorphine, which is famous as a free pill.
There are currently 529 government OT clinics, de-addiction centres in Punjab, while in 2019 this number was 193. There were 105 private centres in 2019, which has now increased to 177. There are long queues outside the OT clinics six days a week.
A year ago, figures were presented in the Punjab Assembly that in the last six and a half years, 8.82 lakh patients visited de-addiction centres in Punjab, but only 4106 addicts gave up addiction. From 26 October 2017, records of patients registered in de-addiction centres have been started to be maintained.
According to the latest details, the government spent Rs 20.97 crore on these tablets in 2019 and Rs 85.95 crore in 2023. The government is spending an average of Rs 23.54 lakh per day on drug addicts. The government has supplied 46.73 crore buprenorphine tablets from January 2019 to June 2024.