Punjab Police Claim To Have Made 33,000 Drug-Related Arrests Over Past Two Years

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CHANDIGARH – The Punjab Police claim to have made 33,000 arrests under the NDPS Act over the past two years. Besides, over 3 crore intoxicating pills and capsules have been seized.

The data is part of a departmental analysis on the present drug situation in Punjab. The police claim they have “won the war against drugs, and that only minor battles need to be handled”.

The report mentions that following the police crackdown, over five lakh addicts queued up at de-addiction centres for treatment. It emphasises on rehabilitation of the affected youths, and seeks a constant vigil on them.

The analysis, part of a dossier, mentions how the police busted the almost two-decade-old drug distribution network, including local and international supply chains, and controlled the abuse of prescription drugs.

The dossier avoids dubbing the affected youths as addicts. They are mentioned as consumers or former consumers. It mentions how the hidden stocks of heroin were unearthed, and the efforts put in to break the ‘money trail’ of hawala traders to pay the smugglers who supplied drugs from across the border.

Director General of Police Sumedh Singh Saini said the fight against drugs was more challenging than terrorism as the trade worked on cut-offs and anonymity. “An effective enforcement by the state government has led to a check on the availability of drugs. A continuous vigil is being maintained on former consumers and peddlers. We are also engaging the civil society to eradicate the problem and for rehabilitation,” he said.

Inspector General-cum-Director, Punjab Narcotics Control Bureau, Ishwar Singh, said such a high number of arrests were made without any law and order problem. Police officials handling the operation at various levels feel post-terrorism trauma suffered by survivors was one of the several reasons that led to a rise in the drug problem. The report points out while Punjab lodged 10,220 FIRs under the NDPS Act in 2012, Goa, where drugs were far readily available, registered only 55 cases.

“We broke drug cartels in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, besides raiding synthetic drug manufacturing units in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh,” said an official.

The dossier has separate categories for different drugs. For heroin, it claims that the street peddling was nil. But it admits that consumers in some cases have found retail outlets outside the state from where drugs were bought in small quantity.