Rise in drug trafficking

10/09/2018

There has been an alarming rise in drug trafficking in the State for last over three years and it has been a cause of concern for the people as large number of youth are falling prey to drug menace day by day due to the weak policies of the Government and its failure to take punitive action against the drug traffickers. A survey revealed that the drug menace is not confined to a single part of the State but it has spread its tentacles to entire Jammu and Kashmir now with more and more youth being lured by the mafia groups to become habitual drug addicts. Huge quantity of narcotics has been seized from the vehicles involved in cross-LoC trade and this is a great cause of worry for the masses. To detect the smuggling of narcotics from across the border, the Government has failed to install scanners to check the vehicles coming across the LoC. Every second day police registers FIRs under NDPS Act. The narcotics are mainly smuggled from across the border via border districts like Poonch and Kupwara in Kashmir valley. In some cases the narcotics are smuggled from Punjab borders also. Police is on lookout to trace the ultimate source of supply where from narcotics are pumped in the State.
The alarming rise in the narcotics trade in the State can be gauged from the fact that recently Jammu and Kathua Police as well as Excise Department seized 51 kgs of high grade heroin smuggled from Afghanistan at Jammu valuing Rs 250 crore while on next day the Lakhanpur Police and Excise Department seized 45 kgs of chars valuing Rs one crore. Even on August 11, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized 627 grams of heroin in Srinagar which was smuggled from Pakistan and was to be transported to Punjab. This was followed by another seizure of 190 kgs of poppy Husk by Excise Department and Lakhanpur Police at Toll Post Lakhanpur on August 12. As per data available with the State police, 19,500 patients were treated in the OPDs of Drug De-addiction Centres in the State among them 6000 were treated in Jammu centers alone. It further revealed that 2000 drug addicts were admitted in the Srinagar centers and 2000 in Jammu centers for treatment. To treat the drug addicts Police has opened nine Drug De-addiction Centers all over the State in the districts of Srinagar, Baramulla, Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Poonch, Doda and Budgam. The Srinagar Drug De-addiction Centre has been set up in 2008 while the Jammu Centre was established in 2013. To eradicate the menace from the State, the police under Preventive Action has slapped PSA on 12 drug peddlers in 2016-17while 769 cases were registered against them in the State during this period. Besides, 868 drug peddlers were arrested. It said that 170 kgs of heroin, 15 kgs of Brown Sugar, 7000 kgs of poppy straw, 25000 intoxicating capsules and Corex bottles in thousands were seized throughout the State during this period. However, on ground it seems that no effective steps were taken to stem the drug abuse from the rot to save the youth from falling a prey to this dreaded menace. The people termed it a big conspiracy to spoil the youth of the State by pumping the narcotics from across the border and other countries. Some people apprehend that the supply comes from Pakistan and its alarming rise was after the opening of cross-LoC trade.

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