Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday said drugs have become an international menace and needs to be curbed.
“If we want that our generations to be protected in near future, participation of people is a must to eradicate this international evil,” he said while presiding over the opening of three days conference on ‘Drug problem in Himachal Pradesh, searching for truth and solution’ organised by Institute of Narcotics Studies and Analysis (INSA) and funded by National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse (NFCDA) at Kullu on Monday.
Drug addiction and drug abuse was a major international problem for many families, communities and law enforcement agencies said the Chief Minister.
Chief Minister said that drugs and alcohol abuse are important problems that affect school going youth at early age. No matter what age a person is from and what social class they might fall into, as the addiction unfolds, their continued use could lead to disastrous consequences. “Drugs were targeting our generations and the nexus between the drug mafia and the traffickers need to be dealt with heavy hand”, he added.
The Chief Minister said the law enforcement agencies need to curb the inter-State drug trafficking from the neighbouring States. “It has been observed the drug peddlers were more active in areas adjoining Punjab border that needs to be curbed at all cost,” he added.
Virbhadra Singh said the cultivation and production of Cannabis in Himachal Pradesh has its deep roots since long. It is directly related with their living as one of the major source of income. It is also related with the geographical terrain of the state which is difficult and takes days to reach in such areas as there is no road connectivity, he said.
“The only solution to solve this problem in Himachal Pradesh is to provide central funds for providing the people the best substitute in economic terms so that they earn money more than what they were getting from cultivation and production of cannabis and opium poppy,” said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister said that there were few areas in the state which were known for cultivation of opium poppy seeds but by providing option of fruit crop or other cash crops as apple etc, as a substitute crop and construction of roads in these interior areas led to transformation in cultivation pattern and people were well earning now.
Virbhadra said that the other factor that need to be kept in mind while addressing issues of drugs in young addicts was responsibility of both the legal and illicit drug industries, producing synthetic drugs.
“The drug racket seem to be well organised, have sophisticated and persuasive marketing and publicity strategies which do their research meticulously on the consumption patterns and establishing new markets and developing high-tech modes of transporting illicit drugs. This had to be tackled to save the younger generation and the country as well,” he added.