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. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt Elrod