By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The State Director General of Police N Ramachandra stressed on the need to strictly enforce the drugs law to save the youths and the society from the drugs menace.
Addressing the gathering of the training programme on Drug Law Enforcement at Police Training School here on Tuesday, the DGP also asked all the participating officers to identify the drug traffickers and take stringent action against them as per the law.
According to Ramachandra, drug abuse has not only ruined the lives of thousands of youths but it even wrecked many families and put the society in a dangerous situation.
He also emphasized on the need for strict vigil along the known drug routes as well as along the Indo Bangla border besides the border with neighbouring states.
The two -day training programme on the drug law enforcement is organised jointly by the State CID and narcotics control bureau (NCB) and police officers from all the district are participating in the programme.
It may be mentioned that the situation on drug abuse is alarming in the state particularly in Jaintia Hills which reportedly has the highest number Injecting Drug Users (IDUs)
As per the Targeted Intervention (TI) project by the Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya (VHAM), around 860 IDUs have been detected in Jaintia Hills district out of 5398 drug users. Ri Bhoi has recorded 2397 drug users, while the figures is 1525 in West Khasi Hills, 1500 in East Garo Hills, 1100 in West Garo Hills and 800 in South Garo Hills.
One of the main reason behind the rise of drug users in the State is the lack of knowledge and ignorance about the risks, drug culture which involves sharing of needles, syringes etc.
