NEW DELHI, June 25 – A high level of alcohol abuse has been reported from the North-east, in addition to high opiate use, even as the population of drug users including alcohol users countrywide has touched 75 million, a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (NDOC) survey said.
First the good news, the menace of abuse like injecting drugs is not restricted to North-Eastern States although this is common perception but fairly widespread, the national survey ‘the Extent, Pattern and Trends of Drug Abuse in India’ said. The bad news is that besides reports of high drug use, a new phenomenon of high alcohol abuse has been reported from the North-east. It appears that the abuse prevalence of various drugs is uneven in the country. A high level of alcohol, high cannabis, high opiate use have been reported from North-east, Northern and Western regions. No meaningful relationship could be established between high drug use and socio-economic indicators of any given State.
Union Minister for Social Welfare, Meira Kumar, formally released the survey at a press conference in presence of UN officials including UNODC Representative, Gary Lewis, who made a presentation on the findings of the survey. According to the report, based on population figures of 2001, estimated alcohol users have touched an all-time high figure of 62.5 million countrywide. India has about 8.7 million cannabis users and about 2 million opiate users. Besides, 0.1 percent of population were projected as injecting drug users. This category was reported for the first time ever.
Among the opiate users, 0.5 percent of opium use was most frequently reported followed by heroin 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent had used tranquillisers. But what should be of concern to the north-eastern region is the finding that drugs were easily available in the bordering States. This special study confirmed the popular perception that drugs are easily available in border towns. Even though some of the border sites are heavily guarded and have fencing, cross-border drug trafficking takes place invariably. Some other borders as in the North-east are open without any physical demarcation and free flow of people, contraband items and drugs takes place, it was reported by the UNODC.
It was claimed on the basis of data of seizures that between 40 and 71 percent of confiscated opium, heroin and cannabis products were seized in States with unguarded border. The report said that as the three international borders including Indo-Bangladesh, Indo-Myanmar and Indo-Nepal were open and not fenced, people could move freely across the borders. There are reports that people cross the border in search of manual agricultural practice during the stipulated time and go back to their country of origin. Some people work as couriers to carry small amount of drugs. In addition, presence of organised network and syndicates for drug trafficking was also reported, the survey said.
The UNODC report confirming that Indo-Bangladesh border was a hot destination for drug trafficking, said that the border was a transit point for cannabis, heroin and psychotropic substances, besides some consumption. As for the Indo-Myanmar border, the Moreh border in Manipur was commonly used for trafficking drugs like heroin, cannabis, and pharmaceutical drug and methamhetamine and precursor chemicals.