SHILLONG: With the number of drug addicts/users arrested growing by the day, the Meghalaya Drug Users’ Coalition has said the government should focus on catching the suppliers.
Meghalaya Drug Users’ Coalition is an umbrella organisation of members from Meghalaya Drug Users’ Network, Drug Users’ Union of Meghalaya, Meghalaya State Network of Positive People and Jaintia Network of Positive People.
Addressing the press on Tuesday, president of Drug Users’ Union of Meghalaya Neil Khongwir said, “Attention should be directed to the drug suppliers and things will cool down. Drugs are easily available and there is some nexus going on.”
“What is the status of arrested drug suppliers? Catching small fishes will not help,” he added.
President of Meghalaya State Network of Positive People Barry Kharmalki said stringent policies should be framed to tackle the menace.
On drug addicts being thrashed in public and their stigmatization, Kharmalki said the Meghalaya Drug Users’ Coalition will not keep silent on such violation of human rights.
The members cited the June 7 incident in Polo where drug users were paraded and the videos went viral after which some of them were driven out of their homes, “This violates human rights,” they said.
Kharmalki said, “We will not keep silent and will take legal action, we are in contact with District Legal Services Authority. Drug users cannot be treated like criminals. Public shaming does not help.”
He observed that the society has to take a united call to work towards removing stigmatization of drug users and maintained that instead of beating them up, the drug users should be shown love, care and counselling.
With the public shaming of the drug users, he said those beaten up have gone into hiding and it is difficult to track them.
“They will become all the more hardcore. They will show resentment since they have been defamed,” he said adding that they condemn the police action of beating the drug users.
With over 3000 registered drug addicts, he said theft cases cannot always be attributed to them. “We will start with advocacy and if all that fails, we will take legal action,” he said.