Drug Menace: Medical College directs its MBBS students to undergo Mandatory Urine Test

Thiruvananthapuram: Drug abuse among students is terrorizing the country at present and this menace gripping upcoming doctors; is more horrific.

Alerted by the speck of this nuisance roving around its campus, Kolenchery-based private medical institute, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College has issued a circular directing all its MBBS students to undergo urine analysis.

As mentioned in media reports, the circular issued by the Medical College Dean on January 17 states, “The urine test would be conducted on students randomly selected. The kit for urine analysis for substance abuse (drugs) is available. All students are advised to co-operate in implementing the same.’’

While some medical associations have wondered if this initiative will be proven successful, some have supported it saying that these incidents are currently notorious in medical colleges and strict monitoring is needed on the students attached with these institutes.

“We haven’t heard about a college implementing such tests in the past. But we cannot complain against it since there is an obvious increase of such incidents among medicos,’’ Dr Rahul UR, State President of All Kerala Medical Post Graduates Association, told TOI.

"We had conducted several discussions on this in our meetings. Now, a state-level meet of medicos is being planned in February. We are planning to launch a campaign against drug abuse in all campuses,’’ Dr Rahul added.

“Can urine analysis of students be taken without their consent? There has to be a proper guideline for this," said Dr N Sulphi, State Secretary of Indian Medical Association, who added that a consensus should be evolved to put an end to this menace in medical colleges’ campuses.

On this, the medical college has clarified, that “the screening would be conducted on students based on the written consent obtained from students as well as their parents.”

In the meantime, to address the issue of substance abuse in medical students, the next edition of Inter-Medics, which is scheduled to be held in Alappuzha in April, will focus on the ‘Say No To Drugs’ theme, adds TOI in its recent report.

Medical Dialogues had recently reported about the case which has now struck many of the medical institutes in the state. A few days ago, a 27-year old final year MBBS student studying at JJM Medical College had been arrested on account of storing and selling banned narcotics and other deadly drugs.

Read Also: Shocking: MBBS student arrested for peddling LSD,MDMA, Ganja Drugs