Raining drugs and drug peddlers :: Missing : The big catch
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 11, 2022 -

It is raining drugs and drug peddlers and smugglers and the ‘catches’ have been impressive especially along the Imphal-Moreh route and the shady streets and corners of Imphal and other towns of Manipur.

However the net cast is just not big enough, for till date there is no report of any big fish being netted. At best it has been more a case of some petty drug pushers and smugglers, who are at best couriers being caught.

Moreover there has been no acceptable explanation on how huge consignment of drugs from Manipur (originating or as transit points) made their way through the numerous checkposts on the highways connecting the State with the rest of the country and the same being detected and seized at Nagaland, Assam and Meghalaya.

No worthwhile question along this line has also been raised and the people who matter just seem contented and satisfied with making public the information that so and so individual has been caught along with drugs.

All indications that the War on Drugs has to go beyond arresting some petty pushers, razing fields of Poppy plantations to the ground and getting villages to pronounce that Poppy cultivation has been banned in their area of jurisdiction. Crack the whip and go for the big fishes if the War on Drugs is to become more meaningful.

The very arrest of pushers and drug smuggler should be the beginning of a crackdown on the drug cartel, the big fishes who are all operating behind the scene but who finance and operate the whole business via their henchmen.

And it is from the arrest of the drug pusher from whose possession some grams of heroin powder or brown sugar or some WY tablets have been seized, that the Government should take the steps to go closer to the drug cartel.

What is the follow up story after a drug smuggler or a drug pusher is arrested along with drugs ? Aren’t they subjected to any sort of questioning or interrogation to go anywhere near the sharks, the big sharks who finance the whole process of bringing in the drugs or ‘manufacture’ them at some locations here and then proceed to take them outside the State ?

This is a point which The Sangai Express has been referring to very often, whenever any commentary is passed on the War on Drugs mission taken up by the Government.

Along with the crackdown on the drug smuggling network, it would do good for the Government to study the social and economic profile of those apprehended with drugs.

The Government must get down to the business of raising some pertinent question within themselves, such as why is it that more than ninety percent of those arrested with drugs tend to belong to a similar social and economic background ?

This is a serious point which needs to be probed and studied.

Maybe research scholars can conduct a study on the profile of all those caught with drug consignments while trying to ferry them across the State or those arrested either in Assam, Nagaland or Meghalaya or even in far off places such as Delhi.

Understanding the profile of the drug smugglers and drug pushers may go some significant way in identifying the most likely people who may be lured into the business of transporting drugs.

Large areas under Poppy plantation have been razed to the ground but till today there is no report of anyone behind planting the Poppy plants being hauled up.

Who are the people behind the business of planting the Poppy plants ? Who gave them the permission to plant the Poppy plants ?

Can one expect a simple farmer in the hills or the village to take the extract from the Poppy plant and find a market to sell them ?

Who finances the whole operation, starting from cultivating the Poppy plants, harvesting them and then taking them to the selling point ?

The network has to be cracked.

And the Government will need to crack down on this to make the War on Drugs more meaningful and more effective.