Caught in the middle: On India and curbing drug abuse
India is located between two major drug-producing regions: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran to the west and Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos to the east. While the West has historically dominated heroin production, the International Narcotics Control Board has said Myanmar has become the world’s leading source of illicit opium while East and Southeast Asia remain major sources of methamphetamine. Officials have said drugs are being received at Gujarat, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu via maritime routes. Similarly, some drugs are produced domestically using illegally diverted pharmaceutical ingredients, aided by the fact that individuals possessing small quantities of heroin can attract up to six months’ imprisonment, whereas drugmakers that cannot account for lakhs of doses often face only slaps on the wrist. The rise of Myanmar, where the territory under ethnic armed organisations is expanding, as a key source is also troubling since it shares a border with India. The Narcotics Control Bureau has noted a dramatic surge in the use of drones to smuggle drugs across borders, especially over Punjab. Traffickers are organising over the darknet and using cryptocurrencies. The pillars of India’s response thus aim to keep the enforcement regime from being out-innovated and improve regulatory certainty. States are trying to adopt a ‘whole of society’ approach recognising the public health and social dimensions. However, India needs to do more. Physical abuse and forced detoxification are frequently reported from many private centres. Punjab has an extensive network of de addiction centres providing opioid substitution therapy, and some northeastern States to a secondary extent, but most large States have much less access relative to need. Most Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts are located in urban areas whereas the highest density of addicts in Punjab are in border villages and rural pockets. Likewise, relapse is often treated as a moral failure and many addicts avoid government centres fearing social ostracisation, particularly in rural North India. The persistence of criminal records for small-scale possession prevents youth from getting jobs, reducing their odds of escaping the drug-crime cycle. Although the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan has said it has sensitised over six crore women, facilities dedicated to women are scarce and concentrated in urban areas; stigma, caregiving responsibilities, and lack of gender-responsive treatment keep many women from seeking or completing care. Finally, as evidence shows, disrupted supply can drive many users to cheaper alternatives unless accompanied by effective treatment. India must therefore shift public focus from seizures and arrests to the number of lives restored. Published - June 30, 2026 12:10 am IST Read Comments Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit READ LATER SEE ALL Remove Related Topics India / forests / rivers / mountains / Afghanistan / Pakistan / Iran / Myanmar / Thailand / Laos / narcotics & drug trafficking / waterway and maritime transport / Gujarat / Kerala / Tamil Nadu / pharmaceutical / Punjab / technology (general) / public health/community medicine / crime
- 1Drug policy in India operates under a complex federal structure, with the NDPS Act, 1985 governing the field nationally but implementation split between the Narcotics Control Bureau at the centre and state police. The Seventh Schedule of the Constitution places public health primarily under the State List (Entry 6) and drug standards under the Concurrent List (Entry 26), creating coordination challenges. Punjab has built a relatively robust opioid substitution therapy network, but most large states have lagged far behind, illustrating how decentralised governance can produce deeply uneven public health outcomes for the same class of citizens.
- 2India's drug challenge is fundamentally a regional security problem: the Golden Crescent—Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran—lies to its west and the Golden Triangle—Myanmar, Thailand, Laos—to its east, making India the world's most vulnerable major transit country. Myanmar's political instability since the 2021 military coup has expanded territory under ethnic armed organisations, reducing state capacity to curb opium cultivation and directly increasing drug flows into India's northeast. The INCB's finding that Myanmar has overtaken Afghanistan as the world's top illicit opium source is a significant geopolitical development with direct implications for India's border management strategy.
- 3The NDPS Act, 1985 has been criticised for rigidly distinguishing between small, intermediate, and commercial quantities and imposing mandatory minimum sentences with limited judicial discretion. In Hira Singh v. Union of India (2020), the Supreme Court clarified quantity thresholds and signalled concern about disproportionate sentencing. The article's observation that small-quantity users face imprisonment while large-scale manufacturers receive negligible consequences points to enforcement asymmetry—arguing implicitly for NDPS Act reform that decriminalises personal possession while substantially strengthening penalties against manufacturing and organised trafficking.
- 4India's drug burden carries a substantial and measurable economic cost. A UNODC estimate placed the number of Indians requiring immediate drug treatment at approximately 2.26 crore, with opioid and heroin dependence concentrated in Punjab, Rajasthan, and the northeast. Research consistently shows that opioid substitution therapy reduces crime rates by up to 60% among participants and significantly increases employment—making investment in treatment far more cost-effective than repeated incarceration. The gender dimension is equally critical: India has no dedicated national protocol for women's drug treatment, and the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan's reach of six crore women has not been matched by a corresponding expansion of women-specific treatment facilities.
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