Focus on reducing demand for drugs through awareness drives
INTERNATIONAL Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking was observed on June 26 with the aim of strengthening action and cooperation in achieving a world free of drug abuse. This year’s theme is ‘People first: stop stigma and discrimination, strengthen prevention’. The emphasis of the campaign is on raising awareness about the importance of treating people who use drugs with respect and empathy, offering alternatives to punishment, prioritising prevention and promoting language and attitudes that are respectful and non-judgmental.
A couple of years back, the Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights conducted a survey and found that 50% of the students of government schools consumed intoxicants such as poppy husk, weed, tobacco, alcohol, cocaine and other party drugs. As per the last survey (2019) sponsored by the Ministry of Social Justice and conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, 57 million alcohol addicts and around 1% of the 31 million cannabis users are in dire need of treatment. A whopping 12 million Indians use sedatives and 11.8 lakh of them are dependent; 1.2% of children use some inhalant; 2.1% of the people consumes opioids, including 4% of all males, 0.2% of females and 1.8% of children below 18 years.
It is shocking that 22.4% of the Indian population is hooked to one or the other type of drug use; more than one-third of the prisoners are drug abusers. Rave parties, nights out and club-nights, where drugs are easily available, is the new trend seen even in small towns. These are indicators of a dwindling familial and societal control system, changing food habits and social behaviour of people, easy availability of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (NDPS), poor implementation of laws and misplaced priorities of law enforcers, uneven coordination among multiple agencies involved in giving effect to policies and inadequate outreach programmes to deal with the addicts.
Till two decades back, sandwiched between the ‘Golden Crescent’ of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, India used to be a transit route for drug trafficking to Europe and the western world; gradually, it has emerged as a huge consumer market of narcotic contrabands, as well as the biggest producer and supplier of synthetic and intoxicating pharmaceutical drugs to south-east Asian countries. The traditional supply routes have also changed and NDPS are now being smuggled into India mainly through seaports.
The pattern of substance consumption in India has undergone a qualitative change in the 21st century; refined opioids, cocaine and synthetic and pharmaceutical drugs are fast replacing the local-street NDPS such as cannabis, ganja and poppy husk. Online delivery and supply of drugs through courier services, without the risk of being caught by the police, have started in a big way; the fragile KYC (know your customer) norms in the postal system are proving handy. Due to high profitability, the involvement of influential people and connivance of law-enforcers with the traffickers have been amply substantiated from time to time.
This year’s campaign is a reminder to the policymakers that not enough attention has been paid to rescue those who have lost their way in the world of drugs. The focus is on people-centric policies, of demand reduction, disruption of supply chain, risk reduction and rehabilitation. It is in sync with the objective of the Draft National Demand Reduction Policy, 2014, which envisages demand reduction through awareness, education and counselling.
Medical professionals see drug abuse as a composite psycho-social-medical problem, requiring the combination of medical treatment and psycho-social interventions. It is reported that 75 per cent of the consumers tried to quit drugs but did not receive any help or treatment. The lawmakers identified this problem very early and included Section 71 in the NDPS Act, 1985, mandating the state to open de-addiction centres. The National Drug Policy 2012 also recognised the need for quality de-addiction centres in adequate numbers, both in private and public sectors. Accordingly, the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (2018-23) was prepared by the Ministry of Social Justice to implement the ‘people first’ policy. Despite that, not many quality drug de-addiction and counselling facilities are available to cater to the needs of every victim of drug abuse.
The legal policy of not stigmatising the substance abuser is already established under Section 64A of the 1985 NDPS Act, which provides immunity from prosecution to addicts charged with the consumption of contraband drugs or possession of small quantities of drugs. Immunity from prosecution under Section 64 is also available to petty offenders in order to obtain their testimony against big drug smugglers. Both these progressive provisions of the NDPS law have failed to find favour with the agencies.
‘Strengthening prevention’ has been on the radar of Indian lawmakers. Very strict punishments are prescribed for drug traffickers, including death penalty for repeat offenders. Preventive detention up to one year, without any trial, of convicts, arrestees and suspects in offences entailing punishment of imprisonment of 10 years or more is provided under the Prevention of Illegal Trafficking in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988. In order to make drug-trafficking a bargain of loss, provisions relating to the seizure, freezing and forfeiture of illegally acquired properties of the offenders and their relatives and associates were added in the NDPS Act in 1989. The state of affairs being bad is evident from the fact that the police and other agencies are not using these provisions adequately, either due to lack of professional skills or for want of priority. The National Crime Records Bureau has not thought it proper to even log data on both these counts.
The International Day Against Drug Abuse is a wake-up call for society in general and law enforcers in particular to set their priorities right for the benefit of future generations, before it is too late.
