Editoral-Anti-narcotics policy

On the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, there is no better way for the government to renew its commitment to a narcotics-free society than by having the cabinet approve the new national anti-narcotics policy. It was in 2000-01 that we eradicated poppy cultivation and achieved poppy-free status, thanks to the first anti-narcotics policy, 1993. However, with no new policy, success in reducing the production of narcotics in the 1990s was not matched by similar progress on the drug-trafficking and drug-addiction fronts. Thus trafficking in drugs increased and drug addiction rose from three million drug addicts in 1993 to, reportedly, at least six million today, with one in 10 college/university student said to be an addict.

How sincere the government is in its commitment to reducing drug abuse can be judged by the goals of the Anti-Narcotics Policy 2010. Any effective policy must go beyond maintaining a poppy-free status, and mop up what we failed to stem in the first decade of the 21st century. The new policy should address what the latest World Drug Report 2010 says is a growing new trend — the use of synthetic drugs or amphetamine-type stimulants.

New narcotics control measures in the 2010 policy, like the creation of an inter-agency task force, the setting up of parliamentary committees on narcotics control and the enhancement of treatment and rehabilitation facilities, are important. But to forestall a shift in the 2010s from the abuse of opium and heroin to the use of new addictive substances that can easily be manufactured in clandestine laboratories from legal and readily available chemical raw materials the government will need to act now. It must control the sale and purchase of such chemicals. It must also carry out a narcotics survey regularly to assess emerging trends and the extent of abuse.

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