Tuesday, May 05, 1998

Globalisation: the drug dimension

Date: 05-05-1998 :: Pg: 24 :: Col: a The Hindu Daily
www.webpage.com/hindu/daily

GLOBAL DRUGS LAW: Prof. R. K. Nayak; Har-Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd.,
364-A, Chirag Delhi, New Delhi-110017. Rs. 795.

The Third World, particularly India, has been drugged by globalisation as a
panacea (or placebo?) for its developmental problems while two other
opiates, viz., privatisation and liberalisation have received a pejorative
slant from progressive economists. This trinity of mantras, minted abroad
and imposed on India is the economic narcotic of the Indian elite.

But another psychotropic addiction, far more devastating and dementing and
desperado-spawning, is the sinister spread of narco- terrorism, drug
trafficking and other incalculable vices which have gained international
currency among terrorists, achieved irresistible popularity among
adolescent and adult victims of both sexes, and criminalised the rich and
the poor alike, corrupting a whole generation beyond redemption.

The drug empire is so powerful that the police, courts and prisons are no
match for this grave menace. This globalisation process, too insidious and
a money-minting business, with violent transnational networks, to be
tracked down by the national police single-handed, too impregnably
protected by underground mafia and dubious power-brokers, that health,
peace and security of people everywhere are in perennial peril.

Necessarily, human survival drives nations, whatever their ideological and
other antagonisms be, to come together for collective policing, jointly
evolving operational strategies of detection and destruction of production,
distribution and consumption of narcotics and psychotropics unlimited and
for deterrent as well as rehabilitative criminal justice on a cooperative
basis worldwide. Every country has stakes in the extirpation of this trade
in chemically-catalysed insanity.

Confronted by this challenge, the United Nations has swung into action, set
up an international drug control programme and is mobilising world opinion
and action with an Agenda of Operation Global Drug Eradication. A vision of
a new drug-free world human order is a consummation worth any sacrifice.
Such a transformation will spell abatement of desperate terrorism, violent
crime, psychic collapse, broken homes, ubiquitous corruption and cultural
decline of the younger generation. Drug abuse and drug-related crimes are
escalating and this mafiasque trend is pathologically pervasive,
disregarding national barriers.

Many international seminars and consultations are being held to
conscientise the world community, one of which was held in Delhi early in
1997. The inaugural, presidential and valedictory addresses were, true to
custom, delivered by the Vice President, the Chief Justice and the Prime
Minister respectively, with instructive, informative perspectives,
punctuated by erudite platitudes and statistically shocking, sententious
exhortations. Every page is precious, every topic practical. Many
supportive papers of learned length presented by scholars in the field,
social activists and committed specialists, with a grasp of the problem,
followed. The finale, at once creative and purposeful, is the New Delhi
Charter on Global Drug Law. On the whole, the collection of papers,
presenting mankind's struggle to suppress the drug plague, is a volume
which must find a place in the shelves of jurists, judges, lawyers, police
and social activists who run rehabilitation centres.

India, with its strategic location, is being used as a facility for the
Golden Crescent in the west and Golden Triangle in the east and by Nepal
where cannabis is cultivated abundantly. However, it is not a mere transit
point now, since it has developed a big domestic market for narcotics,
heroin and morphine. Drug trafficking can endanger even the political
stability of the nation and enable illicit laundering of huge money, apart
from its promotive capability in the matter of terrorism, smuggling and a
host of other felonious fall-outs.

The law-makers of yore had the Opium Act of 1857 and the Opium Act of 1878
on the Statute Book. Then came the Dangerous Drugs Act 1930 and, recently,
Parliament has passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act
1985. Having participated in international conventions on narcotics, India
has a commitment to actualise the guidelines in the said conventions. One
folly with the draftsmen and the parliamentary committees, speaking
generally, is to feel complacent by merely tinkering with the phraseology
and raising the penalty. There is a blanket ban on cultivation of coca
plant, opium, poppy or cannabis and transactions in psychotropic substances
except for medical or scientific purposes.

The sentence is severe and the tendency of the court, therefore, is to
acquit when many minuscule offences, deserving to be moderately punished
had to be harshly sentenced, unconscionably disproportionate to the guilt.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988, provides for
severe action; but together with sister statutes and rules, the corpus
juris ``red in tooth and claw'' is awesome. However, the more frightening
the statute the less successful it is as a deterrent. More attention on
de-addiction and rehabilitation is essential and more centres with
medicative, meditative and other curative procedures are needed.
Unfortunately, corruption in the ranks of enforcement agencies and absence
of training for the trial judges weaken the implementation of the law.

The conference and the Charter have special importance because of the
proposed 1998 special session of the U.N. General Assembly on drugs. The
important point which emerged from the discussion was the need to improve
the impact of the justice system on the grave crimes related to drug abuse.
The special session of the U.N. is devoted to considering the battle
against illicit production, increasing demand but temptingly lucrative
traffic and extensive distribution of narcotic and psychotropic substances.
The then Chief Justice, Mr. Ahmadi, stressed that the drug trade has a
thriving market in India and had created a neo-rich class who played havoc
with the national economy through anti-national operations.

Deterrence of drug delinquency must claim high priority because AIDS has
become an added dimension of the drug scenario. Injectable drugs used by
drug addicts in groups, sharing the same needle, spread AIDS. The required
capacity of the police force, investigating agencies, specialised criminal
courts, prosecuting staff and jails with correctional potential are matters
hardly receiving attention, as Justice Ahmadi has stressed.

The President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, referred to how China as far back as
1800 A.D., issued an edict prohibiting the import of opium which was a
threat to the health of the people: ``The story is well-known; how the
European powers organised massive smuggling of this substance into China,
and how, when the Chinese resisted, it sparked off the infamous Opium War
in the name of the right of free trade. In sharp contrast today, the world
is united in fighting illicit trade and trafficking in drugs as it is
posing a deadly menace to the health of people and to the cohesion of
civilised society.''

The narcotic drug trade worldwide is estimated at U.S. $.500 billion more
than the G.D.P. of all but the seven richest countries of the world. Fifty
per cent of the world's illicit drugs are sold in the U.S. and Europe. The
degeneracy of these advanced countries may partly be accounted for by the
availability of L.S.D.

Such huge trade in drugs in the west must be having some connivance of the
authorities. Therefore, success in the conquest of the drug enemy needs
more activism in the West. The massive flow of money to the criminals who
organise supply and distribution can be arrested only if the West heartily
joins the battle.

India is a soft state and can collapse easily unless the drive against
drugs is intensified. Gandhiji warned the people long ago: ``The world has
been suffering a great deal from evils such as drinking, smoking, addiction
to opium, ganja, hemp and so on. All of us are caught in this snare and so
we cannot truly measure the magnitude of its unhappy consequences.''

Indeed, there is a flood of facts in the book. Therefore, the reviewer
would like everyone who is concerned with human culture and future to read
the book under review which is well-edited and printed.

By this educative literature, promotive of the mental, moral and the
physical health of humanity, the editors have placed all the readers in
debt. The book may contain no serendipity but does offer strategy,
sublimity and therapeutic methodology vis-a-vis one of the mega menaces of
the century, viz., the ubiquitous disease of drug addiction.

V. R. Krishna Iyer
 

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.