M A I N   N E W S

Punjab On A High IV
Mafias flourish on lax centre-state coordination
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 3
Drugs worth hundreds of crores criss-cross international and national borders before percolating through a strong and reliable network of distributors and retailers to consumers every year.

In spite of stringent laws enacted by various central and state governments, the network has been working efficiently without inviting any serious action from any federal or state agency. In fact, the volume of the annual trade the size of which in many states is bigger than even their budgets has been growing faster than the GDP.

What could be a more blatant violation of various directions and conventions of constitutional and lawful authorities than breweries and distilleries getting away with surrogate advertisements, not only in the electronic and print media but also in sponsoring major sporting and other events ?.

The non-alcoholic products they claim to advertise are either non-existent or are produced in miniscule quantities to get legal sanctity. Liquor is the second biggest addictive after cocaine, heroin, smack, opium, poppy husk and other plant-driven drugs. The third category is of allopathic formulations that include sleep-inducing or feel-good drugs like alprax, mendrex, lomotil, proxyvon, iodex, cough syrups and LSD.

The addicts seldom face any problems in getting the supplies. The production, sale and usage of the products are supposed to be regulated and supervised by different central and state ministries and departments.

A country which once strongly advocated prohibition- with states like Gujarat and Haryana even attempting to enforce it- now has liquor magnets as sponsors for events that are supposed to keep the youth away from addictions. A liquor company and a brewery have been among major sponsors of the ongoing Test series between India and Australia.A commercial on a TV channel or a hoarding in a sporting arena, believe psychologists, greatly impact the minds of the viewers in general and the youngsters in particular and tempt them to use the product.

An inter-department investigation into the exact location, the size of the production unit and the staff, the turnover, balance sheets and the distribution and retail network, besides the mandatory duties paid for such non-alcoholic products would be a deterrent.In fact, union ministries of finance (customs, central excise, revenue intelligence), health (control on production and sale of psychotropic drugs), home (inter-state and international movement of drugs across international and national barriers and the NCB), information and broadcasting (control on surrogate ads) and the state law and order and health departments are the primary institutions entrusted with the responsibility of checking the illicit drug trade.

A lack of coordination between the central and state governments on the one hand and various departments on the other hand has led to the trade not only playing havoc with the lives of the youth but also exposing the addicts to many risks, besides accelerating the rate of crime. In the border belt of Punjab where intravenous injections are a popular mode of addiction, AIDS or HIV positive cases have witnessed a phenomenal increase. This could be a possible reason for more deaths because of AIDS than drugs in Amritsar and Taran Tarn districts.

The number of hoardings and signboards in the border districts of the state that advertise herbal capsules for restoring virility and vigour is astonishing. Rajiv Gupta, a psychiatrist from Ludhiana, informs that addicts tend to become impotent.

First put the youths on drugs and then on herbal capsules for regaining what they lose to drugs. Amazing , isn’t it ? (To be concluded)