Alarm over growing drug menace in India, authorities crack the whip

Of late, the menace of drug abuse in the younger generation has been rising all over the world and India is no exception to it. The magnitude of drug abuse in India has grown over the recent years. The recent seizures and crackdown by authorities is just the tip of the iceberg of a much greater problem and network.

The September seizure of 3,000kg (two containers) of heroin at Mundra port in Gujarat’s Kutch district and weekend arrest of Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan’s arrest in drugs-on-cruise case shows that the authorities will no longer take drugs abuse lightly. The high-profile raid on Sunday yielded 13 grams of cocaine, 21 grams of charas, 22 pills of MDMA and 5 grams of MD in all. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) also arrested Munmun Dhanmecha, Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker, Gomit Chopra and Arbaaz Merchant.

After the Mundra seizure, the Delhi Police have started a new drugs-terror underworld unit in the Special Cell with the appointment of three new DCPs in the unit. The Delhi Police is working with the central agencies to explore the deadly triad link in the capital city where Nigerian and Afghan drug traffickers are active.

India has a prevalence of use of opioids, which as per a government study, is as high as 2.1% as compared to 0.70% global average and 0.46% Asian average. The daily requirement of heroin in India is about one metric ton per day or 360 metric tons in a year, which is valued at Rs1,44000 crore in the international market.

Moreover, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCB has noted that drug abuse and trafficking increased manifold. In June, the agency released data showing an increase in seizures. In 2019, the NCB seized 6.67 tonnes of ganja, 7.5kg opium and 33.3kg charas, while in 2020, 4.89 tonnes of ganja, 15kg opium and 103.9kg charas were seized in Bihar.

Also Read: Whistleblower accuses Facebook of prioritizing own profits over public safety

The agency’s zonal director (Bihar and Jharkhand) Kumar Manish had said that with just six months for the year, the NCB has already seized 4.82 tonnes of ganja, 5.25kg opium, morphine 0.710 and 48.8 kg charas. He added that liquor addicts also shifted towards drug abuse after prohibition in 2016.