{"id":33741,"date":"2022-12-21T03:53:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T22:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33741"},"modified":"2025-04-20T01:10:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T19:40:49","slug":"drug-abuse-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/drug-abuse-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug abuse in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Drug menace in India<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>During a debate in the L<\/li>\n<li>ok Sabha, Union Home Minister said that the government has zero-tolerance policy towards drugs.<\/li>\n<li>As a result of this policy, drug seizures and cases against traffickers went up in recent years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the reasons for widespread Drug Abuse in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>To escape from hard realities of life<\/strong>\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>The disintegration of the old joint family system, decline of religious and moral values etc. lead to a rise in the number of drug addicts who take drugs to escape hard realities of life.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Loosening of the traditional methods of social control <\/strong>leaves an individual vulnerable to the stresses and strains of modern life.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Peers pressure<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Many youths start using drug under the pressure from their friends, seniors at educational institutions, or by members of their informal groupings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Easy Availability<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>India is situated in the sense that on its west is the \u2018Golden Crescent\u2019 and on east is the \u2018Golden Triangle\u2019.\n<ul>\n<li>Golden Crescent &#8211; Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan<\/li>\n<li>Golden Triangle &#8211; Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The usage of drugs in India is increasing, particularly in the border areas due to their porous nature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Economic prosperity<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The agricultural reforms and other industrial activity have led to increase in income in regions like Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra etc.<\/li>\n<li>Increase in disposable money and easy availability of drugs has led to increase in its use.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the steps taken to tackle Drug Abuse in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Article 47<\/strong> of the Indian Constitution directs the State to endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption of intoxicating drugs injurious to health.<\/li>\n<li>India is a signatory to\n<ul>\n<li>the single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol,<\/li>\n<li>the Conventions on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 and<\/li>\n<li>the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Legislative steps<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>Enacted Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, <strong>Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985<\/strong> and The Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Institutions involved<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB)<\/strong> was created in 1986 as a nodal agency to fight against this menace.<\/li>\n<li>Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) are involved with alcohol and drug demand reduction policies and drug de-addiction programme.<\/li>\n<li>In order to prevent misuse of dual-use drugs, a <strong>permanent inter-ministerial committee<\/strong> has been formed with the ministry of health and family welfare and the ministry of chemicals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Technological intervention<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The NCORD portal has been launched as an effective mechanism for information exchange between various institutions\/agencies.\n<ul>\n<li>The Narco Coordination Centre (NCORD) mechanism was set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the year 2016 for effective drug law enforcement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Besides information exchange, the portal will also help in knowledge management.<\/li>\n<li>The NCB is working to launch a helpline soon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>While participating in a debate in Lok Sabha, the Union home minister Amit Shah stressed that the government is committed to wipe out narcotics trafficking.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Key highlights<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>All dealers will be in jail in next two years<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The government has mapped possible routes and drug trafficking networks in 472 districts across the country.<\/li>\n<li>No matter how big the culprit is, in the next two years they will be behind bars.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increased drug seizure<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>As per the data shared by the minister, 6-lakh kilo of drugs were seized between 2014 and 2022 as compared to 22.45-lakh kilo between 2006 and 2013.<\/li>\n<li>The value of the drugs seized went up from Rs 33,000 crore to Rs 97,000 crore in the same period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Three-pronged strategy<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Home ministry has adopted a three-pronged strategy:\n<ul>\n<li>strengthening of institutions;<\/li>\n<li>empowerment and coordination among agencies; and<\/li>\n<li>extensive awareness and rehabilitation campaigns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Empowering paramilitary forces on the borders<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Centre has empowered the Border Security Force, Seema Suraksha Bal and Assam Rifles to register cases under the NDPS Act.\n<ul>\n<li>Many states had criticised this step as they saw this empowerment as an encroachment on their jurisdiction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is drug abuse?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The use of illegal drugs or the use of prescription or over-the-counter drugs for purposes other than those for which they are meant to be used, or in excessive amounts. Drug abuse may lead to social, physical, emotional, and job-related problems.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Is Narcotics Control Bureau a statutory body?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Yes. NCB was constituted by the Government of India in 1986 under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/drug-abuse-amidst-pandemic\/article31917900.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Drug abuse amidst pandemic<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drug abuse is the use of certain chemicals for the purpose of creating pleasurable effects on the brain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}