The recent seizures of narcotics have also elicited focus on the different backgrounds of the persons caught trying to smuggle the contraband. These ‘drug mules’ range from teenagers and villagers to the most recent- a primary school teacher. Observers point out that though the drug mules are being caught at a rising frequency as part of the anti-drug campaign of the State police, the focus has remained mainly on cannabis and that too on the carriers, while the supply of hard drugs especially unrefined heroin — smack continues from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh without much visible impact of police effort. A woman reported to be the notorious woman smack supplier known as Chachi based in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh was arrested by the police some time ago with a cache of the contraband in Kotdwar. However, this has not affected the trade in smack which continues to be sold in various towns, suburban areas, industrial areas and slums of the State.
It is pertinent to mention here that substance abuse is known to have spread to an alarming extent in Uttarakhand with varied substances apart from cannabis also being abused especially by the youth. Observers point out that substance abuse was not really a major problem in Uttarakhand during the times of undivided Uttar Pradesh. However, with creation of Uttarakhand State and Dehradun being made the provisional State capital, the resulting development, especially of higher educational institutions and other factors brought about a change in the substance abuse pattern in the state. In the past, Indian-Made Foreign liquor, locally brewed country liquor and cannabis in the form of ganja and hash were generally used for recreational and cultural reasons in the state. Unlike neighbouring State of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand did not become a haven for tourists looking to use and purchase cannabis as the bulk of cannabis is smuggled out of the state to various cities in north India and elsewhere. The mushrooming of private educational institutions provided criminal elements scope for luring ignorant youngsters into substance abuse. According to the police, in many of the cases of illegal narcotics being seized, the persons caught spoke of the contraband being meant for existing and potential customers especially in the higher educational institutions located in different parts of Dehradun city, suburban areas and outside the city limit. Due to factors like lack of knowledge of the legal consequences and the wish to earn a bulk of money at a time, many people not otherwise involved in the drug trade were caught while smuggling the contraband. Apart from stepping up its drive against drug trafficking, the state police is also working on raising awareness among the youth. However, skeptics opine that the level of public awareness on the subject has remained low and cite the example of two teenagers recently caught with some kilogrammes of hash as an example.