Joint efforts needed to check drug abuse: Chief Justice Himachal High Court

Legal Correspondent

Shimla, March 21

Chief Justice L Narayana Swami today said drug abuse could not be eradicated by finding faults with stakeholders or by passing on the responsibilities but by understanding each other’s problems and then making concerted efforts to combat the problem. He inaugurated a workshop on Narcotic Drugs and other Psychotropic Substances Act.

The High Court, in collaboration with the HP State Legal Services Authority, and HP Judicial Academy, organised this workshop keeping in view the high pendency of cases under the NDPS Act. The objective of the workshop was to evolve a strategy to end this menace and to highlight and solve the problems being faced by different stakeholders while dealing with cases under the NDPS Act.

In his inaugural address, the Chief Justice said the pendency of old NDPS Act cases in the courts reveals some loopholes in investigation, which prevents speedy and effective disposal of these cases.

He said about 6,232 cases of the NDPS Act were pending in the state, which though is not a large number, but lakhs of innocent drug victims were suffering due to these. He added the NDPS Act, 1985, was enacted with stringent provisions to curb this menace and various other Acts have also been passed in this regard, but merely passing enactments is not sufficient. These Acts should be effectively implemented to put an end to drug abuse.