Drug addiction among the youth of the State has increased alarmingly. The trend is not a sudden development. It has been creeping into society stealthily. Left uncared and unattended, the malaise has now spread wide assuming threatening dimensions. Functioning of anti drug authorities desired in accordance with the provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic substances Act (NDPSA) is under question. Increase in drug addiction is attributed to many reasons like unemployment among youth, school dropouts, fragmented families, uncared for kids, persuasion by drug cartels and easy access to drugs etc. Keeping these factors in mind, the primary responsibility rests with the family and the parents.
But there is another aspect to drug proliferation equally important and also sad and disheartening. It is dismally low conviction combined with shoddy investigation by anti-drug police paraphernalia. From the records of the courts, one finds that owing to very poor quality of investigation conducted mostly along unscientific and obsolete lines the courts are unable to establish a case and pronounce punitive measures by way of deterrent. Investigation of drug related cases needs technical training which the law enforcing agencies in the State do not have at present. The police deployed to prosecute drug paddling cases is inept in handling them with the result that prosecution is hampered and no positive results are obtainable. State authorities have unfortunately relegated the importance of technically sound investigative agency to the back burner and thus allowed a creeping disease hold the youth by the neck. Manpower is an asset of the society in the State but if squandered, the consequences will be dire for the entire State and for the nation. For example the mandatory provisions of the NDPS Act vis-à-vis mode and time limit for dispatch of samples of psychotropic substances for chemical analysis are flouted with impunity which creates doubts about the veracity of the prosecution version and appellant gets the benefit of doubt.
It has also to be noted that the equipment and paraphernalia needed for proper testing to obtain correct results is missing. We are told that specialized equipment was provided to the Forensic Science Laboratory but during the past quite long time it developed a snag and has become non-functional. Now the FSL is awaiting funds from the Police Headquarters for rectifying the same. This is not the way how things can work. There is no reason why the equipment should become dysfunctional and then the authorities wait for years at end to receive funds and then get the machines repaired and reinstated. Nobody will buy flimsy arguments like that. Police Department is well aware that for some years in the past, drug paddling has become more frequent and the youth involved in the drug mafia are flocking to it. This is a serious social aberration and of all the persons it is the State police that are expected to be fully knowledgeable about it. Why then did not the officers on spot raise the issue with superiors to provide funds to make the laboratory equipment functional? All that can be said without a shadow of doubt that inefficiency and ineptness are eating into the vitals of investigative machinery. Superior authorities are hardly evincing any interest in dissuading misled elements of society to retrace their steps back to the path of conscientious citizenship.
We find it unavoidable to caution the authorities of serious consequences of a policy of complacency in containing drug addiction and drug cartels from spoiling the youth for their pecuniary benefits. It must make arrangements for providing specialized training to relevant police force that will be deployed to handle the case of drug paddling and drug addiction etc. If such training is not available in the State arrangements should be made to requisition the services of expert from other States.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel