To counter drugs, Ladakh promotes alcohol. Experts say it won’t work

For at least a decade, Ladakh’s excise policy allowed only two liquor shops in the cold desert region. The shops, both in Leh, were allowed to sell only beer and wine.

Last month, the Ladakh administration announced a drastic rehaul of rules. The new excise policy, notified on May 31, for the first time permits the sale of hard liquor in the Union territory. It also announced that 20 more liquor stores would be opened in the whole of Ladakh.

Not only that, guest houses and homestays have also been allowed to retail liquor – permission for which was granted exclusively to hotels till now.

The Ladakh administration’s justification for the new policy has drawn as much attention as the restructuring of rules. It is aimed, the government said, at curbing drug addiction in the Union territory.

The new excise policy “primarily aims to curb the growing dependence on narcotics and drugs and provide people with a wider choice of low alcoholic content liquor in the Ladakh region”, according to a statement issued by the office of Ladakh Lieutenant Governor, Vinai Kumar Saxena.

The policy has come under fire from leading civil society groups in Ladakh, who are currently engaged in tense negotiations with the Centre for greater autonomy. “It is difficult to understand the logic of opening liquor shops in the name of combating drug abuse,” Sajjad Kargili, activist and co-chairman of socio-religious and political group Kargil Democratic Alliance, said in a post on Twitter/X. “Alcohol is itself an intoxicant and, in many cases, serves as a gateway to substance dependence rather than a solution to it.”

Mental health professionals and de-addiction experts are also wary of the promotion of alcohol in combating narcotic drug use. “I don't think alcohol is going to act as a substitute to those who are addicted to opioids. Scientifically, it's not possible,” said a senior psychiatrist in Srinagar, requesting anonymity.

A drug problem

The prevalence of drug abuse in Ladakh is hard to quantify in the absence of recent official data. But doctors treating those who seek treatment for substance abuse say the problem is growing.

“Traditionally, we have had alcohol and tobacco addiction in Ladakh followed by cannabis addiction,” Dr Padma Angmo, consultant psychiatrist at Leh’s Sonam Norboo Memorial hospital, told Scroll.

That changed after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. “Since then, we have had several cases of opioid addiction,” she said. “Currently, heroin is the primary drug of addiction in Ladakh.”

Most of the patients turning up at the hospital for treatment are between 15 and 27 years of age, she said.

Most heroin abusers use intravenous methods, making them more vulnerable. “We have had lots of cases of Hepatitis C and other infections because many end up sharing needles,” said Angmo.

During a meeting chaired by the Ladakh Lieutenant Governor on the functioning of drug de-addiction centres in May, officials flagged an “alarming rise” in drug abuse cases in recent months, particularly among youth and children.

According to the official data shared in the meeting, the psychiatry outpatients department at the SNM Hospital in Leh had registered a total of 141 cases related to substance abuse since April 2025. More than 100 cases pertained to opioid addiction. “It was also informed that 64 substance abuse patients tested positive for Hepatitis C,” a statement issued by the Ladakh administration on May 27, said.

Over the last few years, Ladakh has also seen a rise in the number of cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. From only 2 in 2020, the number of NDPS cases in Ladakh went up to 20 in 2023. In 2024, the total number of cases again touched 20 while the number eventually came down to just 11 cases in 2025.

Dr Angmo says many abusers seeking treatment at the hospital are brought by the police.

Wrong solution

Mental health specialists, however, question the policy’s logic of curbing drug abuse by giving a “wider choice to the public for consumption of low alcoholic content beverages in a regulated manner.”

A heroin user is unlikely to switch to a softer substance even when the opioid is unavailable, doctors say.

“Opioids like heroin are a bigger evil and alcohol is a lesser evil,” said a senior professor of psychiatry in Srinagar, requesting anonymity. “The pleasure produced by heroin is quite quick and substantial. It's significant. It gives release to hormones within seconds. The same thing doesn’t happen with alcohol. It takes time. Therefore, a heroin user will not be satisfied by consuming alcohol.”

“Opioids have a different receptor in the brain while alcohol affects a separate receptor,” said another mental health specialist in Srinagar, with decades of experience in treating opioid-dependent patients. “If someone is addicted to opioids, his withdrawal needs to be treated with opioid substitutes. If we give him alcohol, it won’t work because both substances work differently on the body,” he added.

‘No consultations’

Ladakh’s leadership also criticised the LG administration for misrepresenting their views on the excise policy.

The Union territory government has claimed that the new excise policy was devised following “extensive meetings with civil society organisations, NGOs, religious organisations, public representatives and government officials, in recent months.”

The administration claimed that some civil society representatives “as indeed medical experts in Ladakh, had also suggested expanding the liquor range at authorized vends, to overcome the growing menace of drug abuse.”

Ladakh’s leaders deny this version of events.

“It’s all a lie,” said Chering Dorjay, president of Ladakh's most prominent socio-religious organisation Ladakh Buddhist Association.

According to Dorjay, the administration had invited different sections of the society for a meeting over the issue of drug addiction in Ladakh some months ago.

“They invited us for a meeting over the problem of drugs but their idea was to get our approval [for a new excise policy],” Dorjay said. “We opposed such a proposal tooth and nail. No political party, civil society group or religious organisation supported their proposal.”

Dorjay alleged that the new excise policy was plainly driven by commercial interests at the cost of the socio-cultural norms of Ladakh. “They just want to immobilise Ladakhis by giving them alcohol,” said Dorjay, the co-convenor of the Leh Apex Body, one of the two main civil society groups campaigning for Ladakh’s demands for Sixth Schedule and statehood. “If everyone is opposing it then why did they come up with such a policy? There is a lot of money in [the sale of alcohol] and they want to favour their friends by giving them these contracts so that they can loot our people.”

Many Ladakhis already consume a locally brewed alcohol called chhang, which is part of the region’s customs and festivities, Dorjay said. “It’s a locally made drink and a very light drink. This policy talks about selling hard drinks,” he said.

The veteran Ladakhi leader also questioned the government’s idea of promoting liquor to combat drug abuse. “Show me one example throughout the world where people have stopped taking drugs by taking alcohol?” he asked.

The focus of the administration should be to address drug addiction cases, Dorjay added. “We need proper deaddiction facilities and infrastructure in Ladakh,” he said. “The police should also nab those who are behind the business of drug trafficking in Ladakh. They have just nabbed some small dealers.”

More imposition

The new excise policy was announced at a time when the Centre had purportedly agreed to Ladakh’s demand for protection of land and job rights and autonomy.

On May 22, the Ladakhi leadership had announced that the Centre had offered constitutional safeguards under Article 371 for the region, a legislative body with a chief minister for Ladakh with the entire bureaucracy functioning under him and also offered to enhance legislative, executive, administrative, and financial powers of locally elected representatives in Ladakh.

To many, the May 22 meeting appeared to be the culmination of years-long deliberations between the Centre and Ladakh’s leadership in granting constitutional protections to the union territory after being carved out from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

However, the jubilation was short-lived.

On June 1, the Leh Apex Body, one of the two main civil society groups campaigning for Ladakh’s demands for Sixth Schedule and statehood, refused to sign the draft minutes of the May 22 meeting with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. According to the LAB, safeguards under Article 371 and an elected legislative body, which were discussed with the Centre, was omitted from the official record.

In protest, Ladakh observed a complete shutdown on June 23.

The new excise policy is being read as another instance of the Centre stamping its writ on the region. “It looks like the Centre is not serious in fulfilling its commitments,” said Dorjey. “But it looks keen to impose its policies on us.”