All About Drug Abuse Prevention and NDPS Act

Drug abuse is very typical these days. But government launched an act that regulates the use of drugs and narcotic substances. Let’s dive deeper into the details.

There were no drug regulation laws in India until 1985, when the NDPS Act got passed. Marijuana smoking has been mentioned in the Atharva Veda, and its use for entertainment was typical and widely accepted in the community in terms of alcohol consumption. Until 1985, cannabis and its extracts such as hashish, marijuana, bhang, etc. It is sold in the country legally.

NDPS legislation was mandated to fulfil the obligations of the Indian treaty under the Single Drug Agreement, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Illicit Drug Trafficking and Mental Illness.

Drug abuse is a major socio-economic problem in India, and the government is taking a few steps to reduce drug demand and promote drug rehabilitation in the community.

What is the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS)Act?

The Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was passed in 1985 to address the problem of illegal drugs in India. The law establishes the Narcotics Control Bureau as the supreme law of drug law and empowers it to oversee the Act implementation and other related international treaties.

It prohibits the production, sale, purchase, transport, and use of intoxicating liquor and psychotropic substances. This practise extends to all India and planes and ships registered in India.

The NDPS Act 1985 was amended three times - in 1988, 2001, and 2014.

Generally, the act did not protect drug addicts, and there was no real difference in the management of the user and the seller.

The act got amended in 2001. After the amendment, the law became more tolerant and distinguished between a drug user and a drug dealer.

This amendment focused on the big fish, who smuggle drugs and facilitate their trafficking. The purpose of this amendment was to stop the thinking and treatment of drug users as hardened criminals, which they rarely do.

What is the purpose of the Act?

The original purpose of the NDPS Act 1985 is to prevent drug trafficking in India. To do this, it uses several strict provisions, including minimum mandatory sentences and bail limits.

The law allows a small area for traffickers to escape punishment - which makes even an attempt to make a crime under the offence a severe offence and removes the burden of evidence from the defendant.

But as the law does, it makes a clear distinction between drug traffickers and individual drug users. While the former is subject to severe disciplinary action, the latter gets characterised by empathy and can divert to addiction and rehabilitation.

More importantly, the law separates individual buyers from traffickers and continues to make it illegal to use.

The case with the food itself is unclear. It states that anyone who ingested any drug or psychotropic drug could get punished with imprisonment for up to a year or so.

It does not require the use of drugs, nor does it refer to the process of deciding what to use. It is up to the police to determine the timing of the case. Therefore, this case is always played differently in different districts.

What are some measures the Indian government has taken to control drugs?

Seizure Information Management System (SIMS): Narcotics Control Bureau has upgraded the SIMS platform. Contains a completely online site for drug offenders and perpetrators.

Narco Coordination Center (NCORD): The Department of Home Affairs launched NCORD in 2016. It is a way of holding regular meetings with various Central and Provincial Agencies and facilitating cooperation between them. By 2019, the NCORD program has been restructured into 4 phases up to the regional level by MHA for better communication and collaboration.

Joint Coordination Committee (JCC): To oversee the investigation of major kidnapping cases, the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) and the Director-General, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) chairman, was appointed by the government in 2019.

NDPS Act Punishment and rehabilitation

The law imposes a penalty based on value. The law distinguishes between small and commercial quantities of different medicines.

NDPS Act Punishment provides severe penalties for those convicted of crimes involving trafficking. It even provides for the death penalty in some cases where a person has a recurrence.

But the same act also protects from the persecution of those who rely on drugs (Section 64). It also provides the establishment of treatment centres for addicts (Section 71).

Criticism of NDPS Action

The law has received criticism from various quarters for not distinguishing between soft and hard drugs. Some argue that the same penalty for all drugs could lead drug dealers to switch to harder drugs where they can make a better profit.

Some have criticised cannabis bans as ‘selected’. Some people recommend making legitimate soft drinks that are supposed to reduce heroin addiction. However, the opposite is true that soft drugs are the drugs that can get used to increase the risk of water intoxication.

Conclusion

NDPS law prohibits a person from producing/producing/cultivating, handling, selling, purchasing, transporting, storing, and using any intoxicating drug or substance.

Typically enacted in 1985, the NDPS Act gets amended three times in 1988, 2001, and 2014. According to the Act, narcotic drugs include coca leaf, cannabis (hemp), opium, and poppy straw; and psychological factors include any natural or synthetic properties of any salt or modification protected by the convention of Psychotropic Substances 1971.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there has been a 27 percent reduction in crime related to personal drug use from 2019 to 2020. Even drug-related crimes have dropped by 2% over the same period.