A question was raised just now, as to why the use of alcohol is rampant among the top ranking government officials. I shall not react to this question just now, which may be kept at abeyance for sometime. But let me tell you, alcohol is being used by the people from all walks of life, from top to bottom, irrespective of their economic status. As you might know, alcohol is being freely given to our Defense personnel at reduced rates, be they men of Army, Military, Air Force or Naval Force. In my view, it is pointless to argue, whether alcohol should be completely banned or not, whether its use be limited to a specified categories of people, and the like. Such questions may generate heated debates, leading however to no conclusion.
I may speak something on the parallel phenomenon, i.e. the use of drugs. Drugs are being used not only in our country, but also in other countries of the world since ancient times. Ganja or poppy cultivation has been going on since time immemorial. Despite this, why we didn't face the problem around drugs earlier? Can the gentleman who raised the question about alcohol answer it? People have been using opium and ganja ever since mankind existed, but no question was ever raised about this except during the short span of last 15 to 20 years only. The reason is that the use of drugs was confined to a specific category of people like Sadhus, Sanyasis, hermits, monks etc. who were living in the jungles away from society, or to a section of people who though living in the society were not in its mainstream. These users of 'mild' drugs were not a nuisance to the society or did not pose any harm to the social fabric or integrity either.
But in the last 20 to 30 years, the advent of 'hard drugs' has changed the scenario radically. The 'hard drugs' have emerged everywhere in the world market including India. Of these hard drugs, brown sugar, as you know, is the most popular one and here too. Brown sugar causes a particular effect on the brain and its user gets hallucination or some sort of euphoria or an extraordinary pleasure sensation. As a matter of fact, the advent of hard drugs has been a cause of worry everywhere. The international community has realized that the increasing use of hard drugs, such as charas, brown sugar, heroin, cocaine or other psychotropic substances ( there are a dozen of such drugs) affects not only the person using such drugs, but also the family, society and nation at large. Therefore an ardent campaign against drugs is visible everywhere. Some people call it 'fight against drugs' or even 'war against drugs'. USA is the country most worried over the drug problem. In fact, we are not as much worried as USA is about the drug menace.
At the night clubs in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai, cocaine is used for pleasure. Cocaine irrespective of its quality is a cerebral stimulant. When you use it, you feel yourself to be very powerful physically and mentally, and also you can do your work normally for any length of time. I don't want to go into detail of the effects of the drugs on human body and mind.
It is important to know how our country and Orissa have been affected by drugs. What is the present situation in Orissa? Is the trend of drug abuse rising or under control or declining in Orissa? I was working in Narcotic Control Bureau of India from 1995 to 1997 and posted at Jodhpur along Indo-Pak border. As you might know, most of the narcotic drugs that is trafficked into India comes through our western borders. The area known as Golden Crescent consists of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iran was a part of this Golden Crescent earlier. But now there is not much growth of opium in Iran now. Heroin passes from the Golden Crescent region through India into the western world, and in the process India being a transit country is affected by it. If a particular thing passes through a place continuously, that place is bound to be affected by it some day or the other. It is called spill-over effect. Initially drugs were used in metro cities among students, youth and lower strata of population. Orissa was relatively safe from the drugs during that period, but the day was not far-off when drugs started infiltrating into Orissa through outside visitors, especially foreign tourists.
In India the drug problem started rising from early 1980s. We started mobilizing our forces and resources from mid-80s. In 1986 the Government of India formed one apex agency named Narcotic Control Bureau to coordinate all drug-related activities. This development followed the legislation of a new Act, NDPS ( Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act, that was passed in 1985. In this Act, the provisions are very, very stringent; even for a small quantity of brown sugar, say of 1gm or 2gm, the minimum punishment for the related offence is imprisonment for 10 years, with no grant of bail. Similar provisions are applicable in case of many other drugs, except perhaps the cannabis production. A multi-agency approach is adopted to tackle the problem of drug trafficking at national level. Not only the Police, but also CBI, Excise Dept., Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Excise and Customs, BSF and a few other agencies like Central Bureau of Narcotics are involved and coordinated in this multi-agency endeavour to check trafficking of drugs. During the last 15 to 17 years, all these agencies have been doing their enforcement activities to check drug smuggling and to chase drug traffickers.
But the question is, how far we have been successful? Of course, it would be very difficult to say, what would have been the situation, if these agencies were not there active on the drug front. But one thing is certain, we have not been successful on the whole. The drug problem is still there, and some people believe it to be rising. Moreover, there is neither any pucca survey nor statistics to show that the drug problem is getting reduced.
Now for your information only, let me give some drug statistics of Orissa. The interpretation of statistics is of course a very dicey thing. The statistics is being collected at the national level too. While analyzing the drug trends, we usually count the number of traffickers held, amount of drugs seized and number of people arrested etc. I would say, it is not an ideal method of interpreting the drugs situation.
Let me tell you, in Orissa in the year 1991, 79 cases were detected and only 253 gm of brown sugar seized. The total figure of 79 drug cases involved other drugs also, such as ganja 13.70 kg and opium 22.5 kg. As you might know, at that point of time, brown sugar had also made an inroad into Orissa.
Incidentally let me tell you, I was in Jodhpur in 1996, when our Zonal office had made one of the largest drug seizures of the country. It was around 120 kg of heroin, seized alone by me. And in Orissa ! In course of an entire year, the amount of seizure was only 253 gm of brown sugar.
Again in 1995, 240 cases were booked under NDPS Act in Orissa. This however gives a clear picture that in 5 years, 79 cases shot up into 240 cases. In 1995 Brown Sugar weighing 5.7 kg was seized, ganja 32.50 kg, and opium 3.5 kg. In the year 2001, it was again 122 cases and the quantity of drugs seized was of a proportionate order, a fact which indicated a better situation than what it was in 1995.
Coming to Cuttack district vis--vis Orissa, in the last year ( 2001), out of the total 122 cases of the State, Cuttack only had 43 and thus accounted for one-third of the cases of Orissa. In 2001 I was in Crime Branch, looking after the anti-drug activities of Cuttack after I left Balasore. If I say, Cuttack is having the highest problem of drugs, that will be wrong. In fact, in a certain period of 2 to 3 months of the year, there is heightened activity against drugs, and as a result the number of cases gets increased. But the fact remains that brown sugar is sold widely in the city. The interesting fact is that only 545 gm of brown sugar was seized in Cuttack last year. It means that small retailers selling only small packets of 1 gm or 2 gm were caught. It again means that fairly large number of people are taking drugs and selling drugs. Orissa is not manufacturing the drugs. Where are they getting it from? Very difficult to answer.
We are discussing the question whether the drug abuse was increasing or decreasing in Orissa over time. The only trend that I can say about in definite terms is that, the drug traffickers were not organized earlier. Now they have networks, which are well organized and concretized, for carrying out smooth selling of drugs. Any time they can fool the police. They have been outsmarting the enforcement drives of police not only in Orissa or India but everywhere. Whatever methods you develop to catch them, they would devise ingenuous methods of their own to escape. My interpretation is that the drug problem is not decreasing.
There are two aspects of the goal of checking the drug problem. One is the control of drug, which is basically done by enforcement agencies, while the other one is the drug demand reduction. Now there are only a few activities for demand reduction going on. For example, this NGO ( Project Swarajya), busy in treating the drug addicts. Those who feel motivated to de-addict themselves, approach this NGO and thereby get treated and rehabilitated. But as a matter of fact, the efforts in the area of demand reduction are very few and far between. For your information, USA through UN was pouring money from early 80's till early 90's to all the drug-prone countries particularly India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the main source of brown sugar trafficking, to combat cultivation and trafficking of drugs. But the amount of money spent for supply control has been much, much more than the amount spent for demand reduction. Now the international community is reaching to a conclusion that greater emphasis has to be given to the area of demand reduction. The experience has told us too that stringent Acts could not prevent the drug trafficking nor the multi-agency enforcement drives. Fear of punishment does not serve as a deterrent in the long run. The margin of profit is so high that, as one of the speakers told, even after going from here, they would indulge in the act of drug taking and peddling. Drug trafficking is now the most lucrative business in the world with a huge margin of profit. Perhaps it has the highest profit margin. No other commercial product fetches this kind of profit margin. The temptation for drug is a unique kind of its own.
Now in the last 2-3 years, the trend of international financial assistance has of course been shifting to drug demand reduction. Other speakers were actually highlighting the aspect of demand reduction, when they talked of the need for mobilizing the parents, educational institutions and NGOs to combat the drug menace. In Cuttack, it is the co-ordination between the police and NGOs, which is necessary for fighting the drug. No other agency, but the police is the main enforcement agency, nay, the only enforcement agency. Even the drug seizure figures will say that. So there has to be a proper co-ordination between the police and NGOs, and between Police Station and Sahi people. In course of my several interactions with people in different Police Station areas, I could realize that such a police-people co-ordination is quite easily possible. The Sahi people can identify the drug addicts, peddlers and smugglers, and Police shall do the needful to check them Coordination activities need to be enhanced and there is enough scope for improvingt such co-ordination.
As I know, like to-day's Seminar, joint Seminars have been held during last 3-4 years. I must thank Mr. Akshaya, the SP who has taken the initiative from the Police side for organizing the joint programme. The steps of this kind will certainly ameliorate the situation day by day. I have more interesting facts to tell, but as other speakers are there, I shall pause here. I wish, I come again to Project Swarajya on my own, out of my curiosity. I shall regularly visit this NGO. I thank them for calling me and giving me an opportunity to interact with you.