Drug menace in Assam: Illegal network covers new areas

GUWAHATI: The Assam Police is worried over the sudden spurt in the drug menace, including newer synthetic drugs. Though the Special Narcotic Cell has been set up in the State the menace is yet to be checked. The worst is that even teens have fallen prey to narcotic substances.

The drug menace has come to such a pass that not a single district in the State is free from it. The spurt in drug business has been steep in the past few months. The targets of drug peddlers are the semi-urban areas and youths in the age group of 16 to 24 years. Matriculate unemployed teens are being used by agents to sell drugs in different locations across the State. They get lump sum amounts for pushing drugs.

According to police sources, phensidyle tablets were seized from Lanka on October 14, drug tablets and heroin were seized from Basugaon on October 15, as many as 2,000 drug tablets and brown sugar were recovered from Bakalia on October 16 and around 60,000 drug tablets and brown sugar from Bokajan on October 21. Besides traditional drugs like ganja, brown sugar, heroin etc., the new entrants in the market are psychotropic tablets, a kind of synthetic drugs.

According to the police, drugs enter Assam from two routes – Bangladesh via Dhubri and Mankachar, and Myanmar via Nagaland and Manipur.

Khatkhati and Lahorijan along the Assam-Nagaland boundary is the main transit of drugs into the State. So far this year, around 10 kg heroin and around six lakh drug tablets were seized during raids, leading to the arrest of 1,013 people, said police sources.

Besides, dealers make relentless efforts to push drugs to Assam through Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur through smaller routes. They take the advantage that "it is not possible on the part of the police to plug every such small route". The situation has been complicated further with some smaller outfits being involved in it, added sources.

The police have adopted a two-pronged strategy – conducting raids and carrying out awareness drives. However, the fact remains that a large number of youths, including teens, in the State have been trapped in the network. With the police not being able to bring the situation under control, it is the turn of the parents to monitor their wards.

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