A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan finalised a multi-pronged strategy to counter the drug menace.
Anti-drug enforcement, weaning addicts off drugs and creating social awareness would march in lockstep.
The government has roped in local bodies, residents’ associations and the student community to pre-empt the use and spread of drugs. The Health and Social Welfare departments would play an essential role in rehabilitating substance abusers.
The government has initiated preventive incarceration for habitual drug offenders. The Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988 provided for imprisonment without trial for up to two years. Mr. Vijayan has ordered law-enforcers to apply the law to deter drug smugglers, peddlers, and their enablers.
The Home department has insisted that prosecutors cite previous offences of drug case suspects in charge sheets to ensure successful prosecution.
It also requested courts to impose strict bail conditions on habitual drug offenders. The government had asked the police to collect intelligence on the drug trade.
Officials said synthetic drugs posed a particularly grave threat to society. They, especially LSD ‘stamps’ and MDMA pills, were easily concealable, transportable and vulnerable to misdeclaration at air, sea and land border check-posts.
The meeting also noted with worry that an increasing number of impressionable youth were slipping into drug crime, given the sizeable profits involved.
