National Fund to Control Drug Abuse

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 26, Oct 2021

The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has recently recommended that the National Fund to Control Drug Abuse be used to carry out de-addiction programmes, rather than just policing activities.

About the National Fund to Control Drug Abuse:

• It was created in accordance with a provision of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
• It had a nominal corpus of ₹23 crore.
• Funding: Under the NDPS Act, the sale proceeds of any property forfeited, grants made by any person and institution, and income from the investments of the fund, go towards the fund.
• Usage of the fund: The Act states that the fund would be used to combat illicit trafficking of narcotics, rehabilitating addicts, and preventing drug abuse.

World Drug Report 2021:

• Around 275 million people used drugs globally in the last year. Over 36 million people suffered from drug use disorders.
• Rise in the use of cannabis during the pandemic has been reported by most countries.
• Non-medical use of pharmaceutical drugs has also been observed in the same period.
• The latest global estimates say, about 5.5 per cent of the population between 15 and 64 years have used drugs at least once in the past year.
• Over 11 million people globally are estimated to inject drugs – half of them have Hepatitis C.
• Opioids continue to account for the largest burden of disease-linked to drug abuse.

Major Reasons for Drug Abuse:

1. To be accepted by the peers.
2. Increasing economic stress.
3. Changing cultural values.
4. Experimentation.
5. Neurotic pleasure.
6. Ineffective Policing.

Drug abuse cases and numbers in India:

• According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s Crime in India 2020 report, a total of 59,806 cases were lodged under NDPS Act.
• In 2019, there were 3.1 crore cannabis users and 2.3 crore opioid users.

Indian Government has taken several policy and other initiatives to deal with drug trafficking problem:

1. The 'Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan' or a ‘Drugs-Free India Campaign’ was flagged off on 15th August 2020 across 272 districts of the country found to be most vulnerable based on the data available from various sources.
2. Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment has begun implementation of a National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) for 2018-2025.
3. The government has constituted Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) in November, 2016.
4. The government has constituted a fund called “National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse” to meet the expenditure incurred in connection with combating illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs; rehabilitating addicts, and educating public against drug abuse, etc.