SHILLONG: In what can be termed as a dangerous trend, the menace of drugs is spreading its deadly tentacles in the city and has now even penetrated into the military set-up.
Sources on Saturday said that there have been a few instances when armed personnel were found using drugs and were accordingly handed over to police and stringent action taken against them.
Sources said that a few personnel may have got into drugs as they often came into contact with civilians.
In the capital city, the number of drug users and peddlers has increased drastically and the menace has turned out to be the biggest challenge for the police and for society as well.
In the last couple of years, police have arrested many small time drug peddlers throughout the city and seized substantial amount of heroin.
The police achieved a major breakthrough and arrested three prominent suppliers of heroin from the city and seized drugs worth crores of rupees.
It is learnt that heroin is the most common drug among drug addicts in the city.
The menace has assumed such proportions in the city that some drug addicts are even resorting to looting and killing people for drug money.
Recently, a local taxi driver was kidnapped, money forcibly taken by using his ATM card and then brutally killed by alleged drugs addicts.
A police official while talking on the matter said that forensic department and Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act need urgent revamping.
A cop who does not wish to be identified said that the forensic department should be more involved and proactive and should not just pass on the buck to the police.
It is high time that forensics played a crucial role in evidence gathering and their work should not be confined to just assisting the police, he said while lamenting the lack of adequate facilities at the police station level to preserve blood, viscera etc gathered from the crime scene.
Police say that big fishes are using small fishes including addicts to sell their drugs.
It is said that police need the coordination of all the central agencies in the fight against drugs, adding that big time peddlers should not get bail so easily.
The High Court of Meghalaya had recently directed the state police to form a dedicated team in each district in the fight against drugs.
However, police say that NDPS cases are being taken up by police stations which are already over burdened with other cases and this is the reason why most of the NDPS cases fail to stick during conviction.
The situation of drug menace is considered to be grim in Meghalaya as earlier this month, an operation was conducted by ANTF team of Superintendent of Police, East Khasi Hills and the staff from Pasteur Beat House against the drug mafia operating in Polo area and they apprehended as many as 14 persons and recovered some amount of contraband items.
Last year, Shillong Police had seized Rs 2.9-crore worth of the banned drug called World is Yours (WY) and arrested three peddlers.
