MAPUSA
A Goa Police Officer had to face some anxious moments while fielding questions from teachers and students during an awareness drive to combat the drug menace conducted in a city college on Friday.
While a professor of the well-known Mapusa college wanted to know why the government came up with a proposal some time back to legalise marijuana in the State, a student questioned why it took so many years for the government to demolish Curlies when everyone knew that drugs were happening at that shack.
Mapusa Deputy Superintendent of Police Jivba Dalvi fended the questions in his inimitable style but not before realising that handling students and teachers can be quite a handful.
The drug awareness session, which kicked off with a PowerPoint presentation, followed by a lecture by the DySP and a short film on the drug menace, came alive when the field was thrown open for a question-answer session.
“When we know that drugs are illegal, then why did the government come up with a proposal to legalise marijuana in the State?” asked Chandru Govekar, a professor at the DMC College, Mapusa.
Initially, taken aback by the query, Dalvi replied that the government has not legalised any drugs and there was no such proposal and asked the professor to place before him any government document to prove his statement.
However, the Mapusa SDPO was partly right.
While the government had not legalised any drug in the State, it was contemplating a proposal to allow the cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
In 2020, then law minister Nilesh Cabral was on record that his department had vetted and cleared the proposal to allow the cultivation of marijuana.
After facing flak from the opposition, then Chief Minister Pramod Sawant clarified that his government won't allow the proposal of legalising the cultivation and production of cannabis (marijuana).
Addressing journalists at the end of the programme, Dalvi admitted that drug peddling was very much happening mainly because Goa was a tourist State.
Conceding that teenagers were victims of narcotics and alcohol abuse, he emphasised the need to create awareness amongst the general public, including students, about the ill effects of addiction.
“A multi-pronged approach of education, sensitisation and awareness besides prosecution of offenders is needed to ensure that the youth stay away from the drug menace,” the DySP said.
“Several teenagers are getting trapped in drug and alcohol abuse. It is important for institutions, police authorities and the administration to go amongst the people, students and schools to educate them about the ill effects of drugs and alcohol,” he added.
