The Hindu : Kerala News : Awareness drive against drug abuse

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Saturday, Mar 24, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

Awareness drive against drug abuse

The city police are holding interactive sessions with residents' associations and other voluntary groups, writes Anand Haridas

The Narcotic Cell of the city police will launch a drive to create awareness among the public against drug abuse.

The Narcotic Cell recently organised many interactive sessions in association with agencies, including the Ernakulam District Residents Association Apex Council (EDRAAC) and Community Aided Sponsorship Programme (CASP).

The statistics available with the Cell shows that it has identified 450-odd drug users during 2006, who are categorised as injecting drug users (IDUs). Among these, 18 persons are known to have criminal backgrounds.

The city police had conducted an anti-narcotic drive or ANAD 2007 during February, with Assistant Commissioner of Police, Narcotic Cell as the nodal officer. Eight areas were identified in the city and marked out as Red Beats for having more narcotic drug-related activities.

Besides this, the drive concentrated mostly on awareness parts and no major cases have been reported in recent times. "The rate of detection has considerably come down," said V.K. Isaac, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Narcotic Cell.

On the other hand, the Cell has been actively interacting with the Anti-Narcotic Guilds formed in all schools in the city to spread awareness among youngsters about drug abuse. Efforts are also on, as part of the Police Residents Associations Initiative in District Ernakulam (PRIDE), to convert Red Beat areas as drug-free zones.

The cell has been conducting surprise checks in buses coming to the city from high-ranges to check the flow of ganja and heroin. "The trend is to use injections of narcotic drugs. Even though some of the addicts could be brought out of the habit through counselling, they are found to return to it. This is mostly because the drives have not been able to break up the groups, which encourage the habit," Mr. Isaac said.

There was proposal in ANAD to share information with the Central Narcotic Bureau and organise joint raids. This, however, has not been made into practice.

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