Stringent provisions

22/08/2019

It takes away a lot of the thrill of killing yourself when people are looking for you and you're disappointing them, because it is a lot of fun when you're out there killing yourself. Drug abuse is defined as self-administration of a drug for non-medical reasons, in such amount and periodicity which may impair the ability to function adequately and which may result in social, physical, or emotional harm. A wide range of biological, genetic, medical, social, and environmental factors have influenced people from the community for the drug abuse. Drug abuse tends to affect the individuals from the middle-aged and later years of life substantially, the aftermaths of use not only results in adverse health consequences, but even affects the quality of life, family interdynamics, and burdening of the health system. Owing to the adverse impact on all age-groups of the society, it is of prime importance to design and formulate an effective community based and a holistic strategy to address the needs of the drug abuser and their family comprehensively. Multiple measures have been proposed to assist families, health professionals, schools and other community workers with identifying at risk youth and aid in reducing or eliminating risk factors through prevention and treatment programs.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, commonly referred to as the NDPS Act, is an Act of the Parliament of India that prohibits a person to produce/manufacture/cultivate, possess, sell, purchase, transport, store, and/or consume any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance. Minimising acquittals in cases registered under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act has remained a dream in Jammu and Kashmir as Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) framed nearly three years back is still not being followed strictly by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and other concerned departments of the State. There are stringent provisions in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 for the offences related to drug abuse and trafficking. Despite the fact that major offences under the Act are non-bailable, in large number of cases the drug offenders secure acquittal mainly due to non-compliance of mandatory provisions by the investigating officials. This was viewed seriously by the Division Bench of the State High Court in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Court on its Own Motion Versus State and Others and accordingly certain directions were passed to the State to ensure that investigation is conducted in a proper and professional manner by adhering to the mandatory provisions of the Act.
Notwithstanding major thrust in the SOP on the creation of team of dedicated officers in the field of narcotics law enforcement, no serious attention is being paid towards honing the skills of personnel involved in drug law enforcement and in this way the objective of placing specially trained personnel in each police station has remained a dream till date. No serious attention has so far been paid towards another important aspect of SOP as per which a panel of gazetted officers from the civil departments, an FSL expert, Executive Magistrate and an expert from the Department of Weight and Measures was to be kept prepared through an administrative order for carrying out legal formalities by visiting the spot of seizure of narcotics. No effort has so far been made to make available required number of scientific experts in the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in order to ensure effective and timely disposal of cases under examination and maintain credibility and minimize delays.

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