Curbing the drug menace or illicit drug trafficking
still remains a challenge for the law enforcing agencies in Northeast India,
especially the four Indian States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland
bordering Myanmar to its east. This echoes in the growing number of drug users,
especially among the young people. The Northeast’s age-old affinity to what is called the Golden
Triangle, a tri-junction of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, is one major reason
that exacerbates the problem as it is famous for such deadly narcotics. The
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Southeast Asia Opium Survey Report
2013 lays bare that opium cultivation in the region rose to 22% in 2013
impelled by a 13% growth in Myanmar, the country which is the world’s second
largest illicit opium producing country.
Over a decade before, the Golden Triangle used to
supply half the world’s heroine. But the drug barons popped up by ethnic
militias in Myanmar have since been trafficking huge volumes of amphetamines and
methamphetamines, which can be produced even in a small plot of land and in low
cost. Interestingly, these narcotics now predominates the Myanmar portion of
the Triangle. Insurgencies in Myanmar have been funded by drug smuggling. But the
Myanmar civilian government has so far come a cropper in curbing the drug menace
in the Golden Triangle with drug-peddlers being well organized Chinese
syndicates operating from outside of Myanmar. China is not affected by drug
trafficking ever since the Myanmar ethnic rebel group Wa relocated their drug
production units to the Myanmar Thailand border at the former’s persuasion.
Where actually the civilian government did a great blunder is its entering into
ceasefires with home grown insurgent outfits. The agreements have left them
free to carry on with their agenda of manufacturing and smuggling drugs.
It may be noted here that drugs are trafficked regularly
across the common border of Myanmar and Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland because
the border is porous and unmanned at some sectors. The Northeast insurgents regulate
the routes leading to western Myanmar.
The Principal Secretary of Social Welfare Department,
Government of Assam, Hemanta Kr Narzary, while delivering a keynote address on
the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking at Guwahati in
2016 divulged that in 2015, the highest amount of illicit stimulants in the country
was seized in Mizoram. Over 80,000 tons of drugs were seized from the State.
These developments, he rightly said, are a vivid pointer to the gravity of the
situation in the region. He also was of the view that the Northeast was one of
the worst affected regions because of its affinity to the Golden Triangle,
which accounts for over 60% of narcotics traded across the world.
Some days ago, the police chiefs of all the
northeastern States in a meeting at Agartala unanimously decided to step up
their efforts to curb drug menace. Belated though, it has been a step in the
right direction against the backdrop of the troubled region emerging lately as
a major transit point for drug trafficking. As the region shares common borders
with the neighboring drug-producing countries, drug smuggling has become a
major cause of concern. Just as wholesale markets, the easy availability of the
drugs and at affordable prices at transit points containing narcotics and psychotropic
substances has contributed to the surge in the cases of drug abuse among school
and college students in many parts of the region. These reasons apart, yet another
contributing factor behind the growing number of addicts that has made many
people concerned is that the drug-peddlers not only use different routes, but
also carry on with their clandestine activities in unison. Furthermore, they
are, depressingly, targeting educational institutions in the region so as to lure
the teenagers to the dark world of drug addiction.
As a result of their stepped-up efforts, there has
been a rise in the number of young drug addicts in the region. To exemplify,
just as Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur or Mizoram or even Nagaland, the tale of Assam
too, is equally frustrating because here in the State, in spite of remedial
measures initiated by the Government, the use of illicit drugs, especially among
school and college students, is abnormally on the rise in Assam. A recent study
by UNICEF reveals the State as the country’s second highest trafficking zone
and identified six districts – Udalguri,
Kokrajhar, Baksa, Sonitpur, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Kamrup – as the most
vulnerable districts.
Actually, the drug use among young people in Northeast
India, especially in the four States bordering Myanmar, began following the
introduction of heroin in the early 1970s. Many young males, and in small
number young females, in their teens, started getting addicted to drugs this
time around. Gradually they switched over from non-injecting to injecting drug
use (IDU). As per an estimate of 2006 by the National Aids Control Organization
(NACO), there are 50,000 IDUs injecting drug use in the region, a large number
indeed, the majority of them in Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, and lately in
Meghalaya. This figure itself speaks volumes about the problem in these States.
What is, however, disappointingis the involvement of
young drug addicts in a lot of petty crimes within the family and beyond. Common
crimes like thefts are done to finance their drug habits. Through close observation,
it is found that such an addict is unable or unwilling to do any constructive
work beyond what is required for continuing his/her addiction. Most young drug
users are educated and relatively smarter in the community they belong to.
The most dangerous aspect of injecting drug use is
that this method falls into the category of the high risk behavior for HIV
infection through sharing of the substance. As per a study, over 40% of the IDU
share their needles and syringes despite their knowledge of a likely HIV transmission
via such hazardous practices. This makes it deadly, dimming whatever little hope
left of having a cure for HIV in the immediate future.
However, more frustrating is the fact that over the years
there is a steady rise in female addicts in Assam as also the Northeast. Since
the situation is supposedly something far from satisfying, law-enforcing agencies
should initiate stringent measures to curb drug abuse and illegal trafficking.
Curbing smuggling can be easy if India establishes institutional mechanisms
with China, Myanmar and Thailand. The region should have a well-trained force
along its border with the drug producing countries to nab and take the drug
barons and traffickers to task. More importantly, NGOs and voluntary organizations
should also make endeavour to ensure that the young boys and girls in Assam as
well as the region do not fall prey to these deadly drugs, besides carrying out
a periodic mass awareness campaign.
<Dwaipayan>
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