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.