Pubdate: Mon, 10 Oct 2005
Source: Pioneer, The (India)
Website: http://www.dailypioneer.com/
Contact:  2005 CMYK Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Details: http://mapinc.org/media/3956
Author: Joginder Singh

PAGE 3 TO THE UNDERWORLD

During my spell as Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau of
India, I was exposed to the world of drugs, narcotics and psychotropic
substances - through the NDPS Act as it was called. This stringent law
provided a minimum of ten years punishment upon conviction. In fact
under the then Act, there was no judicial discretion to impose a
lesser sentence if the case was proved.

This is one organisation that is charged with the responsibility of
enforcing the Act and rehabilitating the drug abuser, a process that
falls under its charge along with the Ministry of Social Welfare.
Frankly speaking, not many police officers are concerned with drugs.
Even if some are interested, to most drug enforcement is one of the
marginal duties unrelated to their mainstream work of preventing and
detecting crime.

In fact, no police officer gets credit for busting the rings of drug
peddlers or consumers of drugs like heroine, cocaine and other
psychotropic substances. A few years back in Vienna, the Secretary
General of the United Nations Drug Control Programme, Mr Jacomalli,
told me that the drug abuse problem will become more acute in the
future than what the world conceives. He said that drug companies are
into making unheard of and inconceivable drugs.

He asserts that there is research going on in the world that says if
you want to feel and behave like a lion you just have to pop a pill
and lo, you can brave the world. Similarly, if you want to be in an
amorous or happy mood, you just have to pop a different pill. The
problem is underestimated until some celebrity, or a regular of Page
3, is caught in the net of narcotics. It has happened recently in
Mumbai, Delhi and Dubai, where so-called paper celebrities were caught
with their pants down and immersed in drugs.

The NDPS Act of 1985 sets the statutory framework for drug law
enforcement in India. The main elements mandated are to control the
cultivation, production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase,
transportation, warehousing, consumption, inter-State movement,
trans-shipment and import/export of narcotics, drugs and psychotropic
substances. The NDPS Act is, in effect, a comprehensive code not only
for the control and regulation of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances, but also for the control of select chemicals like heroin
and other psychotropic substances that are commonly known as
precursors - substances which can be used in the illicit production of
narcotic drugs.

India is the world's largest producer of licit opium. The entire
produce is required to be purchased by the Government through a
Narcotics Commissioner. Due to the heavy price difference between
Government and black market rates, a portion of the licit opium poppy
crop is diverted to the illicit market. Opium obtained both through
diversion and from illicit poppy cultivation is processed into heroin
in India. Heroin is most often found in the form of a crudely refined
heroin base called "brown sugar," although white heroin hydrochloride
(HCl) is also produced.

India's large population includes a significant number of drug
abusers, although precise estimates are not available. Heroin,
hashish, and pharmaceutical drugs are readily available and widely
abused. Brown sugar heroin is primarily produced for domestic heroin
users since there is little market for this type of heroin outside of
India. Incidentally, one kg of heroin costing about Rs 1 lakh after
processing is sold for nearly $1 million (Rs 4.5 crore) on the streets
of New York.

India produced 726 metric ton of opium from 19,393 hectare planted
with opium poppy for the world's pharmaceutical industry. This amount
fell short of the targeted 900 metric ton, reportedly due to severe
drought conditions. In 2000, India produced 1,302 metric ton of opium
gum, which was an increase from the 970 metric tons produced in 1999.
India is the only country that permits the legal extraction of opium
gum. All pain killers and pain relievers, like morphine are byproducts
of opium.

The illegal diversion of opium leads to the production of drug abuse
substances. Opium is processed into heroin in illicit laboratories all
over India. These laboratories generally produce a low-quality brown
heroin base (referred to as brown sugar). Many countries in the world
are reconciled to the use of soft drugs. For example possession or
consumption of hashish or marijuana, or what we call bhang is no
offence in the Netherlands, though it is so in our own country.
Cannabis cultivation is illegal yet widespread in India.

No estimates as to the size of this illicit cultivation are available.
Both marijuana and hashish are processed in India. The Kullu Valley in
Himachal Pradesh is known to produce marijuana, thus attracting a lot
of foreign hashish buyers. However, although a percentage is sold in
the international market, local people use the majority of
marijuana/hashish.

India is also the world's largest producer of illicit methaqualone.
Methaqualone is one of three categories of depressants, and is usually
marketed under the brand name Mandrax. Large seizures of Mandrax are
not uncommon. For example, in September 2000, over two metric tons of
Mandrax powder was seized near Hyderabad. In February 2001, 1.4 metric
tons of Mandrax tablets were seized in Bombay. A serious Mandrax abuse
problem exists in South Africa and, although methaqualone laboratories
and tableting operations have been seized in South Africa, India
remains the source for a substantial amount of the Mandrax abused in
South Africa.

Furthermore, a wide range of pharmaceutical drugs legally produced in
India is illicitly used. Phensidyl (a cough medicine containing
codeine), buprenorphine (a narcotic), and diazepam (a sedative) are
all widely abused throughout India. The official drug seizures present
a gloomy picture. In 2001 alone, 813 kg of heroine, 23 kg of morphine,
2,321 kg of opium, 5,164 kg of hashish and 75,943 kg of marijuana were
seized by law enforcement.

The capital's rich, bold and beautiful drug abusers have highlighted
the problem once again. These are people who do not take drugs to
overcome their miseries or troubles: They take drugs to get kicks. The
incarceration of the high and mighty is the best way to send the
message that however beautiful or rich you may be, there is no way you
can be allowed to trifle with the drug laws. An official of the
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) jokingly said about the accused that
'sare darzi (all fashion designers) aur nai (and hairstylists)' were
involved in substance abuse'. One member of their fraternity, a fellow
fashion expert, said that a majority of Page 3 regulars are addicted
to drugs.

"You have to understand that a majority of Page 3 people are drug
users. I can assure you of that. Then why just attack fashion
designers and hairstylists? It is in very bad taste and can have
adverse effects," says Habib, the hairstylist. Yet, it is a cheekiness
of the highest order, that people violate the law, justify their
actions and then ask why they are being singled out. If this logic is
accepted, then every criminal will say, why single out only thieves
when dacoits and scamsters are ruling the roost?

Combating drug abuse is multifaceted and complex. Governments and NGOs
can provide rehabilitative care to drug abusers and their families and
guidance to the medical profession to ensure that drug rehabilitation
care finds a secure place in medical and nursing schools.

Trade and Industry can develop substantive abuse programmes to help
their affected employees overcome drug abuse and become more effective
employees. Government and lawmakers can pass effective legislation
that supports increasing budgets for drug law enforcement agencies,
controlling diversion of legal, but often abused, opiate and
psychotropic drugs and ensuring that drug rehabilitation programmes
are sufficiently funded. More than anything else, it is time the
Government took serious measures to combat this disease, before the
virus infects the entire Nation. Drug use is in no way a healthy way
to alleviate emotional and personal problems: It just won't work.
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MAP posted-by: Matt Elrod