Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance deliberating to differentiate between Drug Traffickers and Drug Addicts: MP Arora 

Ludhiana, April 4, 2023: Detailed reply was given by the Union Home Ministry to a question whether the government is considering decriminalizing possession of drugs up to some reasonably small levels to segregate drug addicts from traffickers asked by AAP MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora. 

Giving this information in a statement here today, Arora, said he had also asked about the number of persons sent to prisons under judicial custody or upon conviction for their involvement in criminal cases under the NDPS Act during the last five years. His questions also included how many persons are involved in possessing drugs with quantities less than commercial or intermediate levels as categorized under the act. He had also asked whether the government has commissioned any study to assess the impact of such imprisonment on turning ordinary drug addicts into hardened criminals. 

Replying to these questions, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai mentioned that as per latest data published by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) pertaining to the year 2021, the number of Convicts and Undertrials in Prisons under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic (NDPS) Act during 2017-2021 is as under: Convicts- 8734 (2017), 8198 (2018), 8833 (2019), 5488 (2020) and 6722 (2021); Undertrials- 21127 (2017), 22988 (2018), 26805 (2019), 33410 (2020) and 40862 (2021). 

Regarding Arora’s question about any study to assess the impact of such imprisonment on turning ordinary drug addicts into hardened criminals, the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs replied that, no such study has been commissioned to assess the impact of such imprisonment on turning ordinary drug addicts into hardened criminals. 

Arora said the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, has also stated that the Centre has no proposal for decriminalizing possession of drugs up to some reasonably small levels to segregate drug addicts from traffickers. However, the matter is under deliberation in the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, the nodal Ministry administering the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Act 1985.

Meanwhile, Arora said State Government under directions of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann & Punjab Police under the supervision of DGP Punjab Gaurav Yadav has been making all out efforts to make Punjab a drug-free state. He added under these efforts the Punjab Police had waged a decisive war against drugs. As a result, there has been the arrest of as many as 17568 drug smugglers after registering 13094 FIRs since March 16, 2022, against them. He added Punjab Police have effectively recovered a record 863.9Kg heroin besides making other recoveries in just one year. He added that there has been a significant number of arrests of drug smugglers and recoveries of drugs in the past year. Arora hoped that the ongoing efforts will ultimately yield more fruitful results under supervision of DGP Punjab and dream of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann to make a “drug-free state” will finally come true.