Punjab has a big problem. A study conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has found that narcotics worth Rs 7,500 crore are consumed in this border state every year. Of this, heroin’s share is a whopping Rs 6,500 crore. Of the total population of 2.77 crore nearly 1.3 lakh people are heroin- dependent, which is extremely alarming. What is even more disturbing is that the narcotics are pushed into the state from across the border by drug runners from Pakistan and the network used by them is being used by the ISI to plan and execute terror attacks like the one at the Pathankot airbase.
The narcotics-habit was swept under the carpet by security agencies which said the drugs were not consumed in the state but made their way to bigger cities in the country. India lies between the golden crescent comprising Afghanistan and Pakistan and the golden triangle of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. Both these areas are narcotics producers and India acts as a consumer as well as a transit point to the rest of the world. The AIIMS study now shows that Punjab is gradually getting sucked into the golden crescent and this could have a deleterious effect on the population and destabilise the region if security forces do not act to stem the flow.
