A new sense of awakening seems to have dawned on our enforcement, which has gone all guns blazing. In the immediate aftermath of the drug-related death of a 20-year-old student at BITS Pilani, police launched a flurry of raids — raiding shops, seizing e-cigarettes worth a few lakhs, arresting shopkeepers, and registering cases under the ban on electronic cigarettes. Vasco police seized Rs 51,000 worth of e-cigarettes from a small shop, and Margao police claimed to have confiscated goods worth over Rs 5 lakh from multiple vendors.
For a brief moment, it appeared that the police were determined to uproot the drug menace from the face of the State, despite its presence far and wide across the State. Once again, these are typical reactive “band-aid” approaches that enforcement continues to adopt. The sale of banned e-cigarettes has been rampant in Goa, with outlets, more prominently in coastal areas, doing brisk sales. They co-exist among other establishments, and unfortunately, nobody bothered to raid them or confiscate their goods till this boy died. The action that followed is nothing but a temporary fix to cover-up exposed areas and will do little to stem the tide of illegal sales that has been flourishing for years.
The same is the case with gang conflicts and assaults. It took a gun attack along the busy Colva-Margao road for the police to realise that they had lost grip over anti-social elements. It was only after that incident that did police launched a massive swoop down on gangs and even roadside rowdies that the male cell in Margao jail was full to its capacity. It takes a drunken-driving fatality for police to push the pedal and march out with alcometers.
Sudden police surges with raids, seizures, and arrests reflect poorly when viewed against the broader, more insidious problem of drug proliferation that has quietly thrived across the state. The incident underscores a systemic failure — one where machinery responds to triggers and fatalities with overdrives, but remains insensitive to tackling the root causes and the pervasive illegalities that threaten our youth.
Shops selling vapes, hookah machines, foreign cigarettes, and accessories — particularly at popular beach outlets, party hubs, and tourist hotspots are the very outlets that minors and young adults rely on to fuel their addiction and risky behaviours. Authorities, instead of deploying a comprehensive, sustained crackdown, are resorting to triggered overdrive, overlooking the systemic illegality that has become embedded in the commercial fabric. In theory, the government speaks of ‘zero tolerance’ toward drugs, but on the ground, the bureaucratic inertia, limited political will, and the complicity of vested interests are as clear as daylight.
This is not about the police alone. It took the death of the 20-year-old for authorities to go back to the drawing board and reflect on guidelines mandated by the Supreme Court for student mental health and drug prevention. Schools and colleges lack the structured systems—counsellors, awareness programmes, reporting protocols—that could help identify at-risk youth before tragedy strikes. Several institutes have overlooked the guidelines and failed to create safe environments, both physically and psychologically, for students. This tragedy became a wake-up call for institutions too.
Goa needs a proactive, multi-sectoral approach involving health, education, law enforcement, and civil society. We must move beyond superficial operations and invest in comprehensive prevention programmes, school-based mental health initiatives, community engagement, and enforcement of existing policies. True change requires systemic reform, but above that, authorities need to be vigilant and active, rather than reactive. Safeguarding youth from falling into the trap of addiction and tragedy is a monumental challenge.
