The alarming surge in numbers across the board in Bihar — from drug arrests to seizures to addicts to cases — frame a story about a new crisis gripping the state in the wake of prohibition, as revealed by The Indian Express on Thursday . Each number is also a harsh and poignant reminder of a life deeply affected, or cut short.

Listen to this government employee from a village in Bihar’s Saharsa, a district in the Kosi police range that has seen almost a four-fold jump in NDPS cases in the last four years . For him, the crisis hits home.

“Our only hope is that my 28-year-old brother stays alive. And he can stay alive only if he does not use drugs,” he said, recalling fears of a family that has watched a good student lose his routine, work and happiness to drugs.

“He cleared the Central Teacher Eligibility Test, worked as a medical representative and earned Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 a month. In 2023, he appeared for the state public service commission examination on his first attempt.…