SHILLONG: With the spurt in cases of drug abuse, the state government is in the process of finalising a policy to deal with the menace.
Social Welfare Minister Kyrmen Shylla said the Meghalaya State Policy on Drug Abuse has been prepared by the department and the draft is being finalised for government’s approval.
The policy was prepared on January 25 this year and it was returned by the departments concerned on February 9 with suggestions to correct the draft policy.
Later, the Social Welfare Department submitted the draft policy to departments concerned on May 4 and again it was returned with views from Education, Home (Police), Health and Family Welfare departments on August 23 to incorporate certain points.
Raising a supplementary question, George Lyngdoh of the Congress said drug trafficking menace is on the rise. “In my area, it was never heard of in the past but for the last two months, drug abuse is on the rise,” he said. According to Lyngdoh, there is some problem with the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
“One of the problems is that to arrest a person for possession of drugs, the accused should have considerable quantity of drugs in his possession and in this context, the state government should come up with a resolution urging the Centre to amend the Act,” Lyngdoh said.
He said as per the law in other countries if a person possesses 1 gm of drugs, he is punished with two years of imprisonment and $10,000 fine whereas in India, even if the quantity possessed by the accused is 1 kg, the punishment is just two months in jail with Rs 10,000 fine.
Regarding the question of amending the NPDS Act, the chief minister said, “We will examine the matter.”
Raising a supplementary query, Congress MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh wanted to know whether there is any rehabilitation component in the proposed policy. To this, the chief minister replied that there are components of rehabilitation in the proposed policy.
Mayralborn Syiem said there is a burden on the police to investigate cases under NPDS Act 1995 as the police will have to perform other duties.
Replying to supplementary queries, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said as per a basic study done in 2008-09, there are over 17,833 drug users in the state and pointed out that even West Khasi Hills is also facing the challenge of drugs.
“We need to get the draft ready while the police in different districts are working overtime to check the menace of drugs use,” Sangma said.
According to the chief minister, the menace has jumped to a large magnitude in the last few years and it is a matter of serious concern. Once the policy is in place, we can systematically deal with the matter” he said.
