Punjab's drug problem is compounded by the fact that only small-time peddlers and users are filling up its jails while the big fish continue to roam free and supply with impunity.

SHALINI SAKSENA speaks to lawyers and activists on Punjab’s gravest problem

Imagine if the Government chased sick people with diabetes, put a tax on insulin and drove it into the black market, told doctors they couldn’t treat them… then sent them to jail. If we did that, everyone would know we were crazy. Yet we do practically the same thing every day in the week to sick people hooked on drugs.

— Billie Holiday, in the book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

It has been just over two years since the movie Udta Punjab released and the drug menace in the State became the talk of the nation. Cut to 2018. The situation is no better. A study conducted by the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) between 2013-15 throws up horrifying figures. The report finds that deterrent punishment has not resulted in lowering drug crimes. The data collected suggests that between 70–90 per cent of the total drug cases coming to Special Courts are intermediate quantity cases. In other words, amounts between small and commercial quantities — between 5-10 gm in case of heroin as recovery. The drug traffickers are still at large.

Neha Singhal, senior resident fellow with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, an independent think tank which released a report: From Addict to Convict: the Working of the NDPS Act in Punjab tells you that the NDPS Act was a great example to look at this because it is one of the strictest laws in the country in terms of bail provisions and mandatory minimum jail term.

“The law records a very high rate of convictions in Punjab due to some flawed provisions — one has to only prove that the person had possession of the drug and all this needs is police’s testimony. There are no independent witnesses to collaborate this version. One has found that the police have a template— the cop was out patrolling and found a suspicious looking person. He was stopped. On searching, he was found in possession of drugs and he was arrested. Out of the 13,000 cases (2013-15), 11,000 had this story,” Singhal tells you.

Therefore it can be inferred that the law is tackling a group of people that is was never meant to. “The law was meant to deter drug trafficking but no one is catching them. The second point is about how one is catching peddlers and ending up filling up jails with the wrong kind of people. The third point deals with how the de-addiction centres in the State are inadequate to deal with the numbers cases and that it needs to increase the number with state-of-the-art facilities,” Singhal says.

Dr Rakesh K Chadda, Professor and head of Department of Psychiatry and chief, National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre at AIIMS tells you that opioids and alcohol are the two commonest drug use disorders seen in clinical practice. “Non-acceptance of the problem or denial by the patient is a common issue faced by the treating doctors. Frequently patients and families tend to discontinue treatment and don’t come for the scheduled follow-up,” he says and opines that the biggest challenge is the huge treatment gap going up to 90 per cent. “Reasons include both lack of awareness about the problem as well as the lack of treatment facilities,” Dr Chadda says and stresses the needs for stricter laws for drug trafficking as well as enforcement. “At the same time, the drug addicts need to be seen with a medico-social approach and supported for treatment and rehabilitation and should not be put in jails,” he says.

Hakam Singh, an advocate who practises in Punjab and Haryana High Court and recently organised a black week against drug use is more vocal tells you that there are a few reasons why the jails are full of small-time peddlers or addicts themselves and not the traffickers.

‘First, some 20-25 years back legitimate business — transport and petrol pump — was done by political party workers while politics was left to the netas. This changed some 10-15 years back. All the business was taken over by the politicians. The party workers were left with nothing. They took to dealing in drugs. They knew that in order to prosper they had to ensure that their leader came to power or they would get caught. Second, most people in the State are in one way or the other connected to drugs — dealers or users. Who do you turn to for justice? Third, whenever there is pressure from the top bosses and the public for a crackdown on drugs, it is the addict who is caught by the police. If a trafficker is caught, he gives names of the addicts in order to save his skin and escapes the net. Four, after jewellery, drug is the second biggest business in the State,” Singh says who has over a 100 clients, (mostly teenagers) who have cases against them for possession of 5-10 gm of heroin.

This scenario he says is nothing new. “I joined practise six years back. This is what I have been seeing. Cases that come to the court are against people who have been caught with less than 10 gm of heroin and the chargesheet against each person is always the same. Sometimes, back the Punjab High Court while listening to a case asked the cop why is it that the story is the same — caught a suspicious looking person, on probe, found drugs on him,” Singh says.

Vineet Joshi, chairman of Joshi Foundation has a similar take and tells you that they have always maintained that the drug problem needs to solved when the Government, family and society comes together with the Government’s responsibility at No 3 even though people keep blaming the Government. There are always black sheep in the police. Whenever there is pressure from the Government, the police starts arresting small-time end users and peddlers and not traffickers operating the in the State. It is estimated that drugs worth Rs 1 crore are sold in each district per day, this amounts to Rs 23 crore a day. However, the actual cost is Rs 50 lakh per district the rest is allegedly distributed among the peddlers and the authorities dealing with the drug menace,” Joshi says and adds that if the Government is serious in its efforts to tackle the problem it should put the phone of the local police under surveillance.

“If this was done, the real culprits will be caught. A few months when there were deaths due to drug abuse, our foundation had said that the police at the district level needs to be made accountable. One has to understand that without the consent of the local police ‘parinda bhi par nahin maar sakta’. Police responsibility has to be fixed,” Joshi says and tells you that in most cases when a trafficker does get caught, he goes scot-free by greasing the palm of those in authority weakening the case.

The next stage to tackle the drug menace according to Joshi is the need for the parents to concentrate on parenting. “They need to look for signs — blood-shot eyes and things going missing from the home. Parents need to open the channels of communication. They are not teaching values. The society too needs to accept a person who has come out of the de-addiction centre. This three-pronged approach will ensure that it is the real traffickers will start coming under the net,” Joshi opines.

According to an in-house study by the Bhatia Neuropsychiatric Hospital and De-addiction Centre, around 80 per cent of young people in Amritsar are taking drugs, 58 per cent start drugs before they reach 20 and 80 per cent addicts are in the age group of 20-30 years. The scale of drug abuse in the State came into limelight in 2009 through a submission to the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Harjit Singh, Secretary of the Department of Social Security and Women and Child Development in Chandigarh. Since then, a number of studies and reports have come out showing how the State has fallen prey to narco-terrorism.

So much so that around 70 per cent of the youth in the State are addicts and about 66 per cent schoolchildren have used drugs at some point. It was a 2015 study by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) at AIIMS along with NGO Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses, which sent alarm bells ringing.

The study that covered the 10 districts of Bathinda, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Moga, Sangrur, Patiala and Tarn Taran found that addicts spent up to Rs 2.5 crore a day on purchasing drugs and that over Rs 7,500 crore worth of drugs were being consumed in the State annually.

Founder of the Anti Drug Federation in Punjab, Sanjeev Khan paints a dismal picture. “The problem is that the youth has no work. Even college pass outs have nothing to do. They have so much time to wipe away. An empty mind is a devil’s workshop. Therefore you will find that most recoveries are not more than 5 to 10 go of drugs. In order to stop the drug chain, the Government has to be stricter. Given the present scenario, this is not likely to change in the near future. There is no hope for the youth in the State as far as drug abuse is concerned. The system is using the youth. The big fish is eating small fish. All we can be done is that we protect our children. We can’t rely on the Government. On one end the Government claims that they have broken the chain, but if you read the newspaper, every day you will find reports of drug recovery. How can they claim a break in the chain?” Khan asks and tells you that it takes time for people to get addicted to alcohol and bhuki but with drugs like heroin, it is a one time use that gets them hooked.

“Such people in order to do drugs need money. The easiest option is to drag 10 more people into the chain. Once he does that his drug becomes free. When we talk to the youth they say that this is like a business for them. We need to do drugs, this requires money. How do we do this? We look for 10 more people. Those 10 people look for another 10. And the chain continues,” Khan explains.

The money involved will ensure the chain the not broken. “The phrase raaton raat ameer hona applies here. The chain is so big that it can’t be broken. The government says get a dope test. The State doesn’t have any facility to test for dope. A normal drug is being referred to as dope test. Men are taking urine sample of their wives. The test shows pregnancy. You can only imagine the result. Look at the de-ad diction centres. Where there should be 40, you have 100. What will these centres do? The entire system is rotten,” Khan laments and says that unless the police are allowed to have a free hand with no interference, the problem will continue.

“Parents need to be vigilant as well. “They are not open with their children. There is no communication. It is common knowledge that if you tell a child not to do something his curiosity makes him to the very same thing. If a condom ad comes on TV, the channel is changed. How will this help? The world is in their hand — Internet has all the information. Parents need to be friends to their child. You can’t tell them not to do and they will follow it. They need an explanation which has to be given,” Khan says.

Dr Chadda has a solution too to tackling the present drug menace in the State. “Considering the huge burden the drug addiction imposes on the society, it’s high prevalence, huge treatment gap and associated myths and misconceptions, a public health approach aiming at raising public awareness and creating adequate treatment facilities is required. The community needs to accept that drug addiction is not a bad habit but an illness with a strong biological as well as a psychosocial basis and needs treatment. We need to develop strong awareness programmes starting from schools and colleges and include teachers in creating awareness. A child needs to be taught how to overcome peer pressure to take drugs. Early identification and treatment are required. Supply reduction and demand reduction should be the focus,” Dr Chadda says.

Factfile

The study — From Addict to Convict: The Working of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) in Punjab — presents an in-depth analysis of the NDPS Act and its application in Punjab. The data is collated from 18 districts of Punjab and contains 13,350 cases brought before Special Courts under the NDPS Act across Punjab between 2013 and 2015. Here are a few highlights of the study:

• The sample consists of 1,317 cases brought before the Special Court (NDPS) in Amritsar between the years 2013 and 2015.
• 38% of all cases involving narcotic drugs have been sentenced to imprisonment ranging between 1–3 months. Concurrently, n22.7% of all offences involving pharmaceutical drugs were sentenced to imprisonment ranging between 6–12 months and 19.6% to imprisonment for 10 years and above.
• Average offences involving pharmaceutical drugs are given higher sentences than those involving narcotic drugs with buprenorphine and diphenoxylate being given the highest sentences.
• 79% of all offences involving both narcotic drugs as well as pharmaceutical drugs are given bail in Amritsar.
• In Barnala, cases with poppy husk involve individuals mostly of ages between 30-50. Drug-related offences involving pharmaceutical drugs such as diphenoxylate and dextropropoxyphene indicate a high number of people between the ages of 20-30 years.
• 95% of all cases involving narcotic drugs are given bail in Bathinda. Concurrently, 80% of all cases involving pharmaceutical drugs are given bail.
• While 85% of all cases involving narcotic drugs have been given bail in Fatehgarh, 40% of all cases involving pharmaceutical drugs are denied bail.
• 82% of all narcotic drug cases and 80% of all pharmaceutical drug cases in Ferozepur are given bail.
• 77% of all narcotic drug cases have been given bail in Jalandhar. At the same time, 37% of all pharmaceutical drug cases have been denied bail.
• 90% of all cases involving narcotic drugs and 78% of all cases involving pharmaceutical drugs have been given bail in Moga.
• Average sentences for most drugs in Pathankot are particularly high. Offences involving narcotic drugs such as opium and heroin, as well as offences involving pharmaceutical drugs such as diphenoxylate, diazepam and alprazolam have been sentenced to imprisonment for an average of 10 years. 89% of all offences involving narcotic drugs and 79% of all offences involving pharmaceutical drugs have been given bail.
• In Patiala, 87.5% of all smack-related cases involve individuals of ages under 40 years. The sample consists of 1,508 cases brought before the Special Court (NDPS).
• In Nawanshahr, an overwhelmingly large number of drug-related offences fall under the intermediate quantity category. In fact, intermediate quantity cases are 11.5 times of commercial quantity cases.