Have the countries including India and the different international bodies done introspection on this “International no drugs day” as to how to minimise the illicit drug trade and consumption after the situation springs back to normalcy after the pandemic?

Monitoring authority

The body in the UN which governs the monitoring of the global syndicates of illicit drug traffickers is the UNODC-UN office on Drugs and Crimes. UN secretary general appoints its executive director.

The secretariat of International narcotics control bureau is incorporated under the Vienna based UNODC. Single convention on Narcotics Drugs of 1961(amended on 1972) and the Convention on Psychotropic substances Act of 1971, and the UN convention against illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances of 1988 guide the activity protocols and Standard operating procedures of the UNODC. Since, on a global scale the malaise of corruption at various levels provide input money for the illegal drug trade, the UN has made the UNODC as the Secretariat for the Conference of the state parties to the UNCAC-UN convention against corruption. This body publishes yearly a report called the World Drug report.

Report of 2020

The World drug report of 2020 points out that the population expansion, urbanization and increased income has favoured in the expansion of illicit drug trade across the world. Another factor which has helped the syndicates is the overlap between the legal and illegal market of drugs.

A worrisome read out from the report for the period 2000-2018 appears in this context. While the population increased by 7% in the developed countries, the population increased by 28% in developing countries.

The prevalence of illicit drug use has increased among the youth in the age group of 18-25 years. The consumption of such materials is strongly correlated to the purchase capacity of the individuals concerned.

The report also points out some even more poignant trends. While the higher income socio economic group are associated with more experimenting with new kinds of drugs, it is the lower income category which suffers the dependency syndrome of the drug story.

The latter group falls into the addiction trap which has debilitating impact on their household income and expenditure. It gets exacerbated by the already rising costs of the healthcare sector where the state sponsored healthcare programmes are coming under seige by corporate lobbyists in the healthcare domain.

A new kind of threat is emerging these days in this context- NPS. New psychoactive substances are those drugs which mimic the function of controlled substances but do not have any standard tests for detections. These are also known as designer drugs.

Examples include Rophypnol, GHB, synthetic cannabinoids, fentanyl analogues among others. They provide leeway to the syndicates to bring to the addicts the addiction without directly bringing in the controlled substance in the picture.

UNODC states that since the dosage for addiction for such substances are not known or standardised; there is a high chance the addict would get intoxicated or overdosed which can cause death. This category forms a new kind of threat as they are not recognised under the controlled substances under any international or any national legislation. They provide the suppliers the sweet blind spot to enter the market and earn profit at the cost of health of the addicts. Main problem with the NPS is that their legal status varies from country to country, even sometimes within the same country. This provides the legal blind spots for the producers, suppliers and traffickers to bring these into the market.

Precursor chemicals and emergence of pre-precursor chemicals

This shady industry thrives on the precursor chemicals which are used to manufacture the drugs.

Some precursor chemicals are ephedrine, acetic anhydride among others. Article 12 of the UN convention against illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances of 1988 defines the precursor chemicals as the substances frequently used in the manufacturing of the illicit drugs.

This puts the precursor chemicals under the watch of the various international and national anti-illicit drug agencies like International Narcotic control bureau under the UN, the DEA of USA, NCB of India, ADO of France.

Manufacturers and suppliers get hold over these chemicals via various ways like Smurfing- multiple purchases at different locations, and Shelf Sweeping- theft of entire shelf stocks of such chemicals. They also get hold of such chemicals from the transport distributors linked with the legal manufacturers. Monitoring by various agencies has increased over the years. So, the manufacturers and suppliers of the illicit drugs have resorted to pre-precursors also known as designer precursors.

Cryptocurrency payments in the darknet provide a new way of financing the sale of the illicit drugs in the market. Poverty, war, low level of attainment of education, material deprivation all provide the perfect recipe for a disillusioned mind to go for the drugs as pointed out by the 2020 report.

Case of India- the complexity

India faces a twin faced problem in this context. To the east are the Golden Triangle- Thailand, Laos and Myanmar and to its west lie the Golden Crescent- Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Both of these groups are hot beds of production and distribution of numerous kinds of illicit drugs channelled into India through vulnerable channels. So the threat is from two sides, geographically speaking. India has been a double victim of the issue of illicit drug and terrorism. Sometimes these two demons join hands in collusion, recent case being the discovery of neuro-bedoxine and dicloran on the bodies of some of the terrorists carrying out the Pathankot attack. Manipur forms a crucial transit point for many drugs which are either manufactured illegally within the territory, or manufactured elsewhere like in Myanmar. An infamous drug in this region brought under the street name of “World is yours” also known as Yaba-a combination of Methamphetamine and Caffeine is one such example.

The picture under the surface is way murkier to be covered in a single column. The links of such cartels with the political circles to evade and bypass the law giving birth to the proverbial narco-politics drive the politics of the region infested with drug addiction. India has seen increase in the illegal consumption and seizure of Methaqualone sold under the name of Mandrax and ATS-Amphetamine type Stimulants like MDMA or Molly. Agencies like Narcotics control bureau suspect that Molly arrives in India from Myanmar.

Glitz and glamour world has its hands dipped in the devil’s puddle filled to the brim with blood of the poor addicts who fall as their prey. Seizure of more than two tonnes of Mephedrone sold as Meow Meow from a racket involving yesteryear B-town star Mamta kulkarni is a point in this case. This racket is said to be spread across the entire B town and its home- the dream city.

Another international tourist destination in India has a dark side to its greater story. In 2010, a girl from Delhi died in Goa after overdosing at the rave party due to a hallucinogenic drug known as Phencyclidine sold under the name of Angel Dust. This region has seen the collusion of narco cartels and child begging cartels.

Other scarier cases

Examples like the ones in India are present across the world, sometimes the cases are way more gorier than one can even imagine. Take the case of a lady, Andrea Fernandez, who was found roaming on the streets of Bogota, Colombia with bruised and injured face, disoriented with no idea where her infant son is. Local police discovered that she was drugged with the most infamous one known as Burandanga also known as Scopolamine.

This compound is said to be derived from the fruits of Borachero tree; scientific name Brugmansia arborea. Interesting fact is that this fruit is found in disparate places like Colombia in south America, or Jharkhand in India, and is identified as extinct in the wild.

The compound scopolamine derived from the fruit (dhatura) creates such a strong hallucination that one becomes completely pliant while staying conscious. This allows it to be used as a date rape drug. Reports from Colombia speak about cases where the persons under its mind numbing effect have helped robbers take away all of their belongings including cash and cards. Hence, this drug has another apt name -the “Devil’s breath”.

A way out-in the case of India

The situation seems to be out of control given the complexity of the cases. First and foremost need is a strong political will at the top to deal with the situation. To put it bluntly, if the parties weed out such players in their teams who have links with this shady business, then only they can put forth strong actionable policy plans.

The next step is to bring in the expert help from around the world and within the country.

Coordination with the UNODC and Interpol in generation of coloured notices including silver notices needs to be set up against the persons who are part of such syndicates. This is because the nature of supply chains involved in this category of crime has global reach and ramifications. Gathering intelligence about this mega business would not be a problem in Indian context given the multitudinal presence of agencies like NCB, R&AW, MI, DIA, NTRO inter alia. NCB should also be enforced to carry out joint pre-emptive operations near the border regions along with BSF and MI which has an operational mandate upto 50 km beyond border to intercept any supply lines. Customs under CBEC should be allowed to work in water tight way along with directorate of revenue intelligence to seize on materials which enter through legal supply routes.

In this context certain legislations should be implemented to guard their actions from unnecessary political interventions. All of these approaches will bear result if and only if the first step is implemented with utmost dedication by the legislators, otherwise nabbing the criminals in this business would remain a far-fetched idea and this menace would continue to remain as an elephant in the room.