BILGA (JALANDHAR): Are drug overdose deaths in Punjab being camouflaged as heart attack cases or death by natural causes?Take the case of Bilga village with a population of roughly 10,000, where people in the prime of their lives simply died one day. As many as 10 died in 2013 alone. The families of the deceased accept in private that drug overdose was the cause of death, but they didn't put this on record because of stigma and the fear of police harassment. "Yes, my son Gaurav died because of drug use. He probably overdosed," says Sushila Rani, one of the Bilga villagers, though the register mentions heart attack as the cause; Gaurav died on February 10, 2014. "We were afraid the police would question us. We would anyway have not got our son back."Her eyes well up as she says, "Gaurav was arrested several times and we would have to pay to have him released. Soon after, he would again come home drugged. He broke our hearts."Another young man, Hardeep Singh, 27, died on September 19, 2013. "He was on drugs. One day he did not come home," says his mother, Sukhwinder Kaur. "The next morning we came to know that he was lying dead in the village." Her husband Lachhman Singh died seven months later. "He was a poppy addict," Kaur says. "Drug use wasn't recorded as the reason of the deaths as we were wary of police inquiries and afraid that bad people would harass us. Several youths from our village died like Hardeep."On the list of 21 dead, local Kirti Kisan Union leader Santokh Singh Sandhu says all except perhaps two or three deaths are linked to drug abuse. He goes so far as to say that the real number of drugs-linked deaths could be just double of what's suspected. "Around 40 addicts would have died in our village due to drug abuse in the period under consideration.While some simply dropped dead, some committed suicide when they fell short of money. It's also possible that some deaths were not even registered by the families," Sandhu says.Some road accident deaths in the state too can be attributed to drug abuse. "If a young person is high on a drug and meets with a bad accident, he is rushed to the emergency ward where he dies. The reason is noted down as accidental death. The real reason is lost," says Dr PD Garg, chairman and managing director, Swami Vivekanand Drug De-addiction and Treatment Centre, Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Amritsar . He said that similarly, drug abuse is never registered as the real reason of some deaths due to respiratory tract illness.In Amritsar, crematoriums are surprised at how 'achanak maut (sudden death)' numbers have shot up in recent years. In the last two years or so, the Sri Durgiana Mandir Shivpuri cremation ground has received 15-20 bodies of people in the 25-35 age group each month, with the declared reason of death in 8-10 cases as 'sudden'. "I am surprised at this rise in the number of young deaths," says Dharmander, an employee.Dr Gurbilas Singh, consultant, gastroenterology and herpetology at Fortis Escorts, Amritsar, suggests appointing coroners, like in the UK, whose duty will be to find out what led to a sudden death in the first place. "This will help bring out the real picture of deaths due to drug overdose, not only in Punjab, but also in India."Deaths of youngsters in cities because of drug overdose have substantially increased in recent years, says addiction psychiatrist Dr JPS Bhatia. "First-time users are the most susceptible to overdose. Young people, usually teenagers, get overdosed under peer pressure. At parties, groups of youngsters often fall prey to drug overdose as multiple drugs are taken to deepen the rush experienced."

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