Kerala   

Crackdown on drug abuse

LAW &ORDER The police have stepped up the drive against drugs in the wake of increased incidence of abuse, says Biju Govind

The Narcotics wing attached to the Office of the Commissioner of Police has intensified the crackdown on drug abuse. The police fear that drug abuse is rampant in the city.

Several incidents of suicide and unnatural deaths on account of use of intravenous drugs have been reported in recent times, say the police. Use of intravenous drugs not only has a bearing on the health and economic condition of communities, but poses the risk of spread of HIV among intravenous users.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Narcotics Cell) M.H. Latheef said 20 cases had been registered last month. As many as 75 cases had been registered against 120 persons till November-end this year. Many of them were habitual offenders. They take to drug-peddling, as they find it a lucrative business.

Mr. Latheef says the drug trade has shifted from Bangladesh Colony, which was a nerve-centre of peddling, to other parts of the city after the police with the participation of the colony residents launched a campaign against drug abuse.

Earlier, Kozhikode beach was said to be one of the transit points of drug trafficking. This is not the case now. Most peddlers employ other modes of distributing the contraband and operate from Palayam, Pushpa Junction and Chemmangad.

Besides, Mr. Latheef says the amendments to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, contain loopholes that give drug peddlers a chance to obtain bail after arrest Earlier, the laws against the offenders were more stringent.

Cultivation, collection, production, manufacture, transport, sale, import, possession, trafficking, consumption and purchase come under its preview. The punishment prescribed is death penalty in certain cases and imprisonment up to 20 years in other cases.

Only an accused charged with possession of drugs of more than 5 gm. has to be produced before the Special Judge (NDPS Cases) at Vadakara. All other cases can be handled at the lower courts.

Significantly, in most of the cases, drug dealers and drug peddlers are caught with less quantity. And most of them are rarely prosecuted for want of evidence.

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