NCJ Number
120805
Date Published
1987
Length
246 pages
Annotation
Narcotics trafficking and drug addiction in India have assumed a serious magnitude in recent years.
Abstract
While no exact figures are available on the extent of drug addiction in the country, continuing media reports of student drug addiction, drug smuggling rings, and crime associated with drug trafficking have brought into focus the interrelated aspects of the narcotics problem. India is strategically situated in two of the most important drug trafficking routes. More than half the illegal heroin used throughout the world comes from the Golden Triangle where the borders of Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet. The other important international narcotics smuggling route, the Golden Crescent, covers Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Heroin is also brought to India through the land route from the Golden Crescent and then smuggled to other countries. Narcotics transit via air routes through such major cities as Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, and Madras. To deal with the drug problem, India's Parliament passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 1985. Essential elements of a counternarcotics strategy for India are an efficient law enforcement system to deal nationally and international with crimes related to narcotics and other dangerous drugs, stringent penalties for narcotics traffickers, protection of the public against drug addiction, and compulsory treatment for drug addicts. Appendixes contain India's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. 30 references, 2 illustrations.