This article is written by Pubali Chatterjee and Sagarnil Ghosh, from Amity University Kolkata.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The untold story…
Not only has the youth been affected by drugs but a video was leaked where a bride was seen taking drugs wearing chooda(bangles).
The resource of such drugs has essentially been from the other half of Punjab’s border area that is from the poppy fields of Afghanistan.
This smuggling is not only associated with Pakistan but reports have proved that African smugglers are also associated with such matters. The entry point of drugs in Pakistan has been through the border. The border having sealed battalions.
Addicts or the consumer base for this whole drug matter not only is the unemployed youth it also includes the cops, housewives, professionals and businessmen.
Morphine is a kind of drug that is given to patients to relieve them of pain, but unfortunately, morphine has been the reason behind so many deaths in Punjab as the doctors declare after several tests. After the ban of heroin from the state, morphine was used by the addicts as a kick to their life.
The drugs paddlers are now selling morphine instead of heroin as they find most of their consumer base in there. But the question lies there that is it not harming the entire population at some level.
The answer is, the deaths are proof of it.
The state’s programme to reduce drug menace amongst the youngsters is through the awareness initiative that is known as “Buddy”.
The exercise of it is though unfortunately limited to posters.
COVID-19Â has ruined the whole existence of human beings barring the stop in the supply chain of Punjab drugs. The unexpected and extreme rise in the cases of fighting dangerous menace in drug addiction has been finally broken not by Buddy but by COVID -19.
The major transit point at the borders of Punjab and Afghanistan has had no supplies of drugs since the outbreak. Though the Narcotics bureau says that 18 out of Punjab’s 22 Districts were in the grip of drug menace.
Alcohol consumption has never been an untold story in Punjab, but the addiction seemed to increase the craving for more and stronger things as alternatives.
The next level was nothing but the starting of consumption of Drugs.
Not only this addiction restricted its claws to the drug itself but the need of money increased more and more in the state which was not available and could only be met by crimes like pickpocketing, stealing from home, and started the trait of exploitation among people.
As the society changes the law must change and take its effect, there was a call for law again when situation arose and that was worse. The Narcotic Drugs an psychotropic Substances Act already had provision for giving death penalty to repeat offenders of drug. The state government also proposed this to the central for giving death penalty to people who did drug peddling. The opposition parties kept on criticizing the Captain at the borders for his failure to stop the drug menace in the state.
Punjab’s chief minister on the other hand demanded for a national policy to control drug abuse by focusing on three components- enforcement, de-addiction and prevention.
As per him a national policy would enable the states to approach the drug abuse in a substantially similar way.
Punjab’s present scenario
The youth of Punjab are already in the pool when there are drugs, alcohol and other harmful toxins.
Drug misuse is a worldwide marvel, influencing pretty much every nation, except its degree and attributes vary from area to locale. India also is trapped in this endless loop of drug misuse, and the quantities of drug addicts are expanding step by step. The worst thing about drug maltreatment in Punjab has procured the extent of a disease that has shaken the whole society in the state. It is seen that in Punjab “drug misuse” is a seething pandemic, particularly among the youths.[i]
Over the most recent couple of years, while the business and economy in the state continued sliding, the drug exchange thrived. With addicts turning vendors and a few reports of political support to the drug exchange, chitta turned into a genuine business in Punjab. The matter of drug spreads from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the homesteads of rustic Punjab and drawing rooms of Ludhiana and Chandigarh, including a huge assortment of entertainers, for example, the jobless country youth, urban rich whelps, spoilt school young ladies.[ii]
Main hub of drugs
In Punjab the primary wellspring of the drug markets being so loaded up with their stock is a direct result of the poppy field arranged to be recognized out of Afghanistan which is developed under the guard dog eye of the Taliban activist association. Presently approaching the primary travel course from which the State of Punjab gets it simple stockpile of the drugs is, presently since there has been an intense increment in the level of the inventory of drugs the seller and the merchants of the drugs the very medication goes in the hand of the African vendors who are having their bases in changed places close to Delhi and different spots who consequently cuts down the material to the locale of the Punjab which is sold illicitly with due consideration to the young.
In any case, not just that there is a gathering of businesses who assembling drug of lower quality with utilizing different unsafe synthetic substance which is sold at a sensibly lower rates than the outside drugs which thus causes a genuine effect on the soundness of the young people of the Punjab.[iii]
Marketing machine of drugs in Punjab
A very much oiled promoting machine works behind the drug exchange state. It is the Punjabi music industry. Punjabi tunes have celebrated and glamorized drugs for quite a long time. Drug melodies sell as much as adoration tunes. There are many cinematographies which has depicted drug life in Punjab. The music business has vitiated the mainstream society so much that a couple of months back the state government needed to frame a board, a ‘culture commission’, to screen melodies that extol drugs and brutality.[iv]
Report by PODS (Punjab Opioid Dependency Survey)
As indicated by a report by the Punjab Opioid Dependency Survey, an overview was directed and the rationale of the review was to check the reliance pace of narcotic drugs in 10 significant regions of Punjab. After the report, an outcome was drawn that in excess of two lakh individuals are in narcotic ward in those 10 regions.
The most widely recognized utilized Opioid sedate utilized in those significant areas by the young are the Chitta or Heroin and not in any event, leaving the results of the opium unturned. Additionally in a specific review directed in the year 2017 it was obviously followed that in the province of Punjab there are in excess of sixty thousand narcotic injectors and all things considered likewise the drug Heroin remains the most cheered one having a gigantic fan-base.
Until there has been a last report been gathered that made it particularly assumed that each third individual in a family in the state is snared with liquor and drugs[v].
Some important legislation against drug abuse in Punjab
- Comprehensive action against drug abuse, August 2018:
Since there was a tremendous issue of medication maltreatment from the previous not many years, the legislature of Punjab has gone to an approach to sanction this previously mentioned act through which the Government and the Police can handle this grave issue and force serious discipline on the charged additionally following and evacuate the whole chain of medications from the territory of Punjab.[vi]
- Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985:
This is an Act which is working all through India as a reason against the drugs showcase and serious reformatory burdens. The different alteration under this demonstration has made the correctional burdens more extreme than before by forcing capital punishments on different issues.
Continuing challenges
- Dealers’ business as usual- Punjab is no exemption to the standard that drug sneaking prompts illicit drug use in the territories along the pirating courses. Punjab’s nearness to the heroin-delivering Golden Crescent—Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran—makes it incredibly powerless. Situated on a long-standing carrying course that sees heroin shipped from Afghanistan by means of neighbouring Pakistan and on to business sectors somewhere else in the locale, Punjab, once viewed as India’s “bread bushel” has risen as a last goal for different unlawful drugs.[vii]
- Lacking Security Mechanism– One of the principal reasons Punjab has neglected to handle the drug issue is a result of the manner in which the state has dealt with its security component. There is not really any coordination among the police, the BSF, and the state and local knowledge offices for checking the issue[viii].
- Lawful Hurdles and Deficiency of Expertise– The Punjab Police has restricted ability to research narco-fear, especially identified with current innovative and logical devices to counter the issue. Examinations have not generally had early victories and have at times been portrayed by poor practices. The low conviction rates and deferral in discipline under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act have additionally ended up being issued.[ix]
Recent landmark case on drug abuse
Sarbjit Singh vs State of Punjab on 25 July, 2018 – the solicitor 1 of 18 was found possessing 25 ampoules containing avil and 25 inebriating vials each containing 2ml of buprenorphine. Those were taken into ownership and fixed in a different package and sent to the concoction inspector who opined that salt buprenorphine hydrochloride, which is a psychotropic substance, was contained in that.[x]
Conclusion
While drug addicts are being gotten, the enormous providers have for all intents and purposes stayed immaculate. The government has not spelt out unmistakably how the new procedure to focus on the providers would be not the same as that sought after by the past government. With the exception of open proclamations, there is no diagram on how the administration proposes to handle the suffering police-government official vendor nexus[xi].
On the off chance that the new Congress government can roll out a conclusive improvement, this nexus will stop to exist. Perhaps the greatest test is to bring all the law requirement offices to consent to a typical motivation.
The government ought to perceive the gigantic test in weaning ceaselessly the Punjabi youth from drugs. In this manner, formation of work openings, framework for recreational exercises and sports ought not be disregarded[xii].
There ought to be an expansion in subsidizing for specific preparation of police experts managing drug discovery and examinations.
Community policing can assume a significant job in building organizations with guardians and network pioneers to become tutors for the anticipation and treatment of medication misuse[xiii].
Execution appraisal, checking and assessment are significant devices for any fruitful framework. In this way, customary appraisal and input of ground real factors of the counter drug drive must be guaranteed by the legislature[xiv].
References
[i] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5787955/ revisited on 27th of April 2020
[ii] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/et-explains/the-chitta-economy-how-the-b usiness-of-drugs-works-in-punjab/articleshow/65634397.cms?from=mdr revisited on 27th of April 2020
[iii] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/et-explains/the-chitta-economy-how-the-b usiness-of-drugs-works-in-punjab/articleshow/65634397.cms?from=mdr revisited on 27th of April 2020
[iv] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/et-explains/the-chitta-economy-how-the-b usiness-of-drugs-works-in-punjab/articleshow/65634397.cms?from=mdr revisited on 27th of April 2020
[v] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/et-explains/the-chitta-economy-how-the-b usiness-of-drugs-works-in-punjab/articleshow/65634397.cms?from=mdr revisited on 27th of April 2020
[vi] http://pbhealth.gov.in/cada%20file.pdf revisited on 27th of April 2020
[vii] https://www.orfonline.org/research/war-drugs-challenges-punjab-government/Â Â Â Â Â Â revisited on 27th of April 2020Â
[viii] https://www.orfonline.org/research/war-drugs-challenges-punjab-government/Â Â Â Â Â Â revisited on 27th of April 2020
[ix] https://www.orfonline.org/research/war-drugs-challenges-punjab-government/Â Â Â Â Â Â revisited on 27th of April 2020
[x] https://indiankanoon.org/doc/116692469/?type=print revisited on 27th of April 2020
[xi] https://www.orfonline.org/research/war-drugs-challenges-punjab-government/Â Â Â Â Â Â revisited on 27th of April 2020
[xii] https://www.orfonline.org/research/war-drugs-challenges-punjab-government/Â Â Â Â Â Â revisited on 27th of April 2020
[xiii] https://www.orfonline.org/research/war-drugs-challenges-punjab-government/Â Â Â Â Â Â revisited on 27th of April 2020
[xiv] https://www.orfonline.org/research/war-drugs-challenges-punjab-government/Â Â Â Â Â Â revisited on 27th of April 2020
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Good Presentation.
Other aspect of the Subject is :
The Nexis or Connections with Locals, Authorities, political Social etc having wasted interest &/or selfish motives without which such large-scale illegal acts and activities NOT POSSIBLE.
Political & Administrative lacuna’s, lack of will power are some of the other aspects required to be exposed.
Incidents like the Director level Officials are well involved – who are supposed to prevent it – are good example to quote so to realise how deep the problem is.
Last but not the least – Easy Money – without any sincere & hard work to fulfil the lust of luxurious life AND
Lack and lacuna’s of Family & Cultural bindings –
Are the other aspects required to be Highlighted to overcome the Problem.
Nevertheless, good article.
Keep it up.