Expressing serious concern over the Centre’s submission in the Supreme Court that a staggering 1.58 crore children aged between 10 and 17 years were addicted to substances in the country, the Maharashtra Congress on Thursday charged that the drug smuggling had increased considerably during the BJP’s regime at the Centre.
Alluding to an affidavit filed by the Centre in the Apex court on Wednesday, Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said that the drug situation had worsened after the BJP came to power at the Centre. “ In the last few years, there has been a large increase in cases of drug smuggling under the BJP’s rule,” he said.
Commenting on the findings of survey conducted by the Centre in line with a directive given by the Supreme Court, Patole said: “India is seen as a country of youth and 50 per cent of the country’s population is in the age group of 16 to 40. The youth is the future of the country. It is not good for the future of our country that the young generation is latching on to drugs.
Alleging that the BJP – which rules the Centre and the states like Guajarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka – had failed to control the drug trafficking in the country, Patole said: “Drug trafficking has increased significantly in the last few years. The country has seen thousands of tonnes of drugs arrive at the private port of Mundra in Gujarat, not just once but many times. A container containing narcotics was also seized from the JNPT port”.
“Even in Bangarulu, the incident of the young generation getting addicted to drugs has recently come to light. These incidents show that the central government has failed to control the rising drug trafficking in different types in the country,” he said.
Accusing the BJP government was trying to malign the previous Shiv Sena-led MVA, Patole said: “The current lBJP government, which has failed to bujst the drug racket in the state was earlier creating an image that Mumbai is a city of drug addicts when small quantities of of ganja was found in the homes of some celebrities in Mumbai, during the MVA government”.
growing number of drug addicts in the country and the failure of the government to control it is a matter of concern. This is a question of the country’s future rather than politics and the central government should immediately look into this matter and work to discourage the young generation who are addicted to drugs,” the State Congress chief said.
In its affidavit filed in the apex court based on data collated survey conducted through the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the Centre had said that alcohol was the most commonly used psychoactive substance by Indians followed by Cannabis and Opioids. The Centre’s affidavit said that about 16 crore people consume alcohol and more than 5.7 crore individuals were affected by harmful or dependent alcohol use and need help.
The Government told the apex court that 3.1 crore individuals used cannabis products and about 25 lakh suffer from cannabis dependence, while 2.26 crore people use opioids and approximately 77 lakh individuals require help for opioid use problems.