News Analysis India

Tag: opium

  • Punjab govt urged to give addicts opium husk on prescription to tackle drug menace

    Express News Service

    CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government has been urged to give opium or poppy husk on prescription to drug addicts in a controlled way, with an NGO headed by a former IPS officer and a few others writing to Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, saying this will help in tackling the drug problem in the state. They said due to synthetic drugs, addicts are becoming impotent, crime is rising and so are cases of divorce.

    The letter written by Iqbal Singh Gill (Retd) IPS officer and General Secretary and Dr Inderjeet Singh Medical Superintendent of Dr Dwarka Nath Kotnis Health and Education Centre (Charitable Acupunture Hospital and Research Centre), Ludhiana, to the Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, of which The New Indian Express has a copy, states, “As for your information if one takes synthetic drugs, it is physically and mentally harmful. But it has been noticed that if one takes opium or poppy husk, there are no physical or mental side effects. Also, people who take synthetic drugs do not think before committing any crime as they lose their mental balance. Thus rapes, thefts, dacoits, snatching are on the rise in Punjab. Besides these, cases of divorce have also increased.”

    The letter also stated that the state government will have to shell out less on medicines for drug addicts and will earn revenue if poppy husks are sold legally. They urged that after due deliberations and discussions, the government should issue a notification and allow sale of poppy husks to drug addicts registered with it from state controlled centres to save the youth of the state and bring down the crime rate.

    “Besides our NGO, one village panchayat and two other NGOs have also written the same in the CMO,” said Dr Inderjeet.

    A few years ago, then Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP from Patiala Dr Dharamvira Gandhi had demanded the legalising of poppy husk cultivation in the state, saying the government should open its poppy husk vends and allow the plantation of marijuana and poppy husk in kitchen gardens on a trial basis. At that time, Navjot Singh Sidhu who was then minister in the state government had supported Gandhi.

  • World fears rise in Afghanistan drugs trafficking amid Taliban takeover

    Express News Service

    BENGALURU:  In the midst of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan,  there is growing concern in the international community including Iran, Central and South Asia, Russia, Europe and Canada, regarding trafficking of opium and methamphetamine from the country.

    With Kabul falling to the Taliban, there are concerns that cuts in global economic aid to Afghanistan will further entrench its illicit drug economy.

    While the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid promised the new government will not allow Afghanistan to turn into a narco-state, Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of The Brookings Institution’s Initiative on Non-state Armed Actors, in her recent research on ‘Drugs, Security and Counternarcotics policies in Afghanistan,’ cautioned that there is a “substantial possibility that peace in which the Taliban is the pre-dominant actor will result in donors cutting off economic aid to Afghanistan, resulting in a significantly worsened economic and humanitarian situation overall, as well as a further entrenched drug economy.”

    The latest United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report has stated that “Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium and accounts for 85%  of the global opium production in 2020.”

    Illicit Afghan opiates are trafficked through the Balkan, northern and southern routes.

    Even as there are concerns about a 37% increase in the amount of land used for illicit cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan during 2020, the UNODC report stated, “Afghanistan is also now becoming a major source for methamphetamine in the region. In Iran in its neighbourhood, the proportion of Afghan-origin methamphetamine seized increased from less than 10% in 2015 to around 90% in 2019.”

    Serious issue, not really addressedAlthough the global trade in illicit Afghan opiates has become one of the world’s biggest trans-national drug and crime threats, the US and allied nations have rarely addressed this in public 

  • 24 kg opium seized, inter-state smuggler arrested in Jharkhand

    By PTI
    CHATRA: An inter-state smuggler has been arrested and 24.48 kg of opium seized from his possession in Jharkhand’s Chatra district, police said on Wednesday.

    Acting on a tip-off, police nabbed Rampravesh Shaw alias Ramu Shaw during a raid at Unta More in Sadar police station area on Tuesday night, Chatra SDPO Avinash Kumar told reporters.

    Opium worth Rs 10 lakh has been seized from his possession, he said.