Punjab’s drug menace demands an all-out war that goes beyond empty gestures

Causes:

• Given the geography, the drugs, whether it is opium or heroin, make an easy and assisted entrance into Punjab from the Golden Crescent (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan)
• Unemployment due to Low presence of manufacturing. Based industrial occupations infuses hopelessness which further aggravates the situation
• Nexus between Politicians-Religious institutions-Trade cartels make it difficult to destroy
• Opium was part of Cultural landscape before partition and ramped up after the Green Revolution

Measures should be taken and are as follows:

• Security-organisations have to make sure that the border is properly barred to the flow of narcotic substances.

• Effective affordable rehabilitation centres, focus on high-prevalence drug groups such as sex workers, transportation workers and street children,
• Redressal  of the unemployment situation.
• A zero-tolerance policy towards drug cartels, syndicates and peddlers.
• Try to break the nexus between the Politicians-Religious institutions with Drug traders by involving civil society, local public and enforcement of strict laws.

This is a national problem as a substantial portion of the drugs that land in Punjab make their way to the rest of the country. Given the links between drugs and terror, this poses a national security threat. Proactive measures such as the ones above must be taken to resolve the issue as reactive policies (death penalty, drug test etc) are not sustainable 

Source: The HIndu