Anti-drug drive: 73 cases filed, 1.3 lakh pills seized in 1 month
With over one lakh banned pills seized during the past one month in the anti-drug campaign by the district police since the formation of the Congress government in the state, the campaign seems to be focusing on pharmaceutical intoxicants.
With over one lakh banned pills seized during the past one month in the anti-drug campaign by the district police since the formation of the Congress government in the state, the campaign seems to be focusing on pharmaceutical intoxicants.
In as many as 73 cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, in the district since March 16, the police have arrested 88 people. The police have seized 1,32,073 banned pills and capsules and 2,227 vials of banned syrup. The other drugs seized during the period included 383 kg poppy husk, 4kg opium, 1kg heroin, three injections and 2kg marijuana.
However, the large quantity of pharmaceutical intoxicants recovered reflect the extent of use of these drugs by the addicts and the involvement of those in the business of medicines. The police officials feel that habit-forming drugs are a major drug addiction problem, so the police are acting tougher against the smugglers involved in the supply of these drugs.
The police and civil administration had launched a campaign against the illegal sale of intoxicants by resorting to raids in the medicine shops in the city last month, medicines shop owners alleged police harassing them in the name of the anti-drug campaign.
The issue of business without licences also came to the fore during the campaign. In one case, when the police seized 29,000 banned pills from a store of a medicine shop in Paras Ram Nagar, it was found that the accused was running his shop though his licence of doing business had been suspended, while in one such case in Maur, where the police recovered 37, 000 banned pills and 2,200 vials of banned syrup, it was found that the prime accused managed to got license of the chemist shop renewed though he was arrested earlier in four cases of supplying drugs.
SSP Naveen Singla said that the extent of the use of habit-forming drugs is much wider. “These drugs are to be provided to patients on the prescription of a doctor, but these are being used by the addicts. The issue had come up in the meeting with the additional director general of police Harpreet Singh Sidhu, heading the special task force on the campaign. We are nabbing people with large consignments as well as with smaller quantity,” he said.
“On the issue of licences to medicine shops, he said that we write to health officials for cancelling the licences of those being nabbed with these drugs. We are working on curbing the menace of other drugs also,” he said.
