Punjab’s drug challenge

Almost two years after Capt Amarinder Singh vowed to make Punjab drug-free within four weeks of coming to power, the authorities continue to grapple with the hydra-headed menace. Under the state’s drug policy, there are stringent curbs on the sale of six habit-forming drugs — tramadol, tapentadol, codeine, diphenoxylate, alprazolam and buprenorphine. However, lax implementation and porous inter-state borders have led to two of them being smuggled into Punjab from neighbouring states via small-time courier companies, trains and luxury buses. These drugs are manufactured mainly in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, both with a fair share of reputed as well as shady pharmaceutical companies. For once, the bogey of ‘narco terror’ purportedly unleashed by Pakistan on the border state has been pushed into the background.

Over the past year, the state’s Food and Drug Administration has been busy inspecting and raiding chemist shops — and religiously feeding the media with updates. Major seizures have been made in Ludhiana and Bathinda and the licences of hundreds of chemists suspended, but the illegal supply has still not been snapped. The prevalent state of affairs hints at the complicity of law-enforcers with the producers and suppliers.

The ruling Congress has repeatedly come under fire for stopping short of catching the big fish in the drug trade - the manufacturer.  The focus has largely been on the small fry, even as harried chemists have dubbed the campaign against habit-forming drugs a witch-hunt. Finally, if not belatedly, Punjab has formed an inter-state coordination committee of drug controllers. This sensible move comes six months after the state Cabinet, in a knee-jerk reaction, had proposed death penalty for drug smugglers and peddlers. It might be politically convenient for the Congress to blame BJP-ruled Haryana and Himachal for the drug mess, but there is an urgent need to improve one’s own system of checks and balances. Fixing accountability of officials at various levels and ensuring that cases under the NDPS Act reach their logical conclusion can go a long way in stemming the rot.