INTRODUCTION
Drug is related to crime as drug trafficking and drug production are often controlled by drug cartels, organised crime and gangs.
Drug crimes typically include:
1. Possession: Drug possession is the most common drug charge and requires the individual to knowingly and intentionally possess a drug without a valid prescription, and in an amount that would be for sale or personal use.
2. Manufacture: Drug manufacturing involves creating a synthetic chemical substance or extracting a natural drug. Manufacturing also includes the packaging of a drug.
3. Use: This means a person consumed or took an illegal drug.
4. Distribution: This includes the sale, smuggling, or delivery of an illegal substance.
At a very basic stage this happens, because a person is desperate to deal with his/her stress to get a momentary high or to just ‘fit in’ with his or her peers, as happens in the case of youngsters. It soon reaches to higher level where the need increases and the person begins to believe their survival depends on those drugs.
The connection between drugs and crime is reflected in at least three types of crimes:
1. Drug‐defined crimes, such as the possession, use, or sale of controlled substances, which violates drug laws.
2. Crimes committed by drug users to get money to buy more drugs or crimes committed by persons under the influence of drugs.
3. Organized criminal activities, such as money laundering and political corruption, in support of the drug trade.
Effects of drug abuse
The major impact of drug abuse is on the brain, which affects every other aspect of the person addicted to drugs. It disturbs the mind of the person Drugs are the chemicals that affect the communication that affects the brain and communication of brain. They disturb the person in many ways in which nerve cells send, process and receive information. There are a couple of ways in which drugs achieve this – they copy the natural chemical messengers of the human brain and they over stimulate the brain’s reward circuit. Drugs like heroin and marijuana are the same way as chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters.
“These neurotransmitters are produced naturally by the human brain. As a result of this similarity, the drugs fool the receptors of the brain and activate the nerve cells in such a way that they send some abnormal messages. In case of drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine, the nerve cells get highly activated and they also release extraordinarily large number of neurotransmitters. They are also capable of preventing the brain from recycling these chemicals in a normal manner. A normal level of production is necessary in order to end the signal between neurons”.
SECTIONS RELATED TO DRUG ABUSE
Section 15 of the NDPS Act will face punishment based on the quantity of the banned substance.
1. where the contravention involves small quantity(<1 kg), with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 6 months, or with fine which may extend to ₹10,000 or with both;
2. where the contravention involves quantity lesser than commercial quantity but greater than small quantity, with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years and with fine which may extend to ₹1 lakh;
3. Where the contravention involves commercial quantity, with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 10 years but which may extend to 20 years and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than ₹1 lakh but which may extend to ₹2 lakh.
Section 276 of the IPC
Sale of drug as a different drug or preparation.—Whoever knowingly sells, or offers or exposes for sale, or issues from a dispensary for medicinal purposes, any drug or medical prepara¬tion, as a different drug or medical preparation, shall be pun¬ished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.
Section 10 of NDPS Power of State Government to permit, control and regulate.—
(1) Subject to the provisions of section 8, the State Government may, by rules—
(a) permit and regulate—
(i) the possession, transport, import inter-State, export inter-State, warehousing, sale, purchase, consumption and use of poppy straw;
(ii) the possession, transport, import inter-State, export inter-State, sale, purchase, consumption and use of opium;
(iii) the cultivation of any cannabis plant, production, manufacture, possession, transport, import inter-State, export inter-State, sale, purchase consumption or use of cannabis (excluding charas);
(iv) the manufacture of medicinal opium or any preparation containing any manufactured drug from materials which the maker is lawfully entitled to possess;
(v) the possession, transport, purchase, sale, import inter-State, export inter-State, use or consumption of manufactured drugs other than prepared opium and of coca leaf and any preparation containing any manufactured drug;
CASES RELATED TO DRUG ABUSE AND CRIMES
Balley Singh v State of Uttar Pradeshand Ors, where the Allahabad High Court cites a decision of the Supreme Court of India dated 17/2/1956, where a challenge to the Opium Acts and the Dangerous Drugs Act on the grounds of Article 14 (right to equality before law) and Article 19(1)(g) (right to freedom of trade and occupation) was rejected
Raj Kumar Karwal v Union of India and Kanhaiyalal v Union of India, . In both the cases, the Indian Supreme Court, in a departure from the settled position on the law on evidence, made confessions to drug law enforcement officers admissible as evidence
CONCLUSION
The abuse of alcohol and drugs has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality among adolescents worldwide. Many of these youth will lose their lives to drugs and alcohol and a significant number are likely to grow up to become problem drug users. Although, the substance abuse problem is complex and large in magnitude, there is a substantial amount of evidence-based research available to physicians, community leaders and schools to implement interventions that can decrease adolescent substance abuse rates. Because this issue is not peculiar to any one community or culture, we recognize that individual interventions may not be universally effective. Therefore, we emphasize the NIDA strategy of targeting modifiable risk factors and enhancing protective factors through family, school and community prevention programmes, as a generalized framework for healthcare and community activists to use when researching programmes and strategies best suited for their own community.
Author: Anjali Thakur,
Gitarattan international business school ip university