North east India could face a huge social, political, economic and security crisis in the coming decades, as several thousand drug users , some of who are as young as medium primary school students, become a growing nightmare in the region. Impure drugs(crudely refined) from Myanmar are packed in sachets and sold cheap at affordable prices to remain within the reach of school going children. In Nagaland, the districts bordering Myanmar are witnessing an ever growing number of young children who are getting hooked to drugs. The frequent seizures of heroin shipments by authorities in Guwahati and other places like Kolkata and Delhi point to a rising trend in the trafficking of heroin from Myanmar. India’s Northeast shares a long border of 1,880 kilometers with Bangladesh, which passes through a bewildering range of hills, plains, and rivers, making the task of policing it fully extremely challenging on both the sides. Myanmar, which borders 1,643 kilometers of Northeast India, is part of the Golden Triangle (comprising Myanmar, Thailand and Laos) drug manufacturing region where 68 percent of the world’s illegal opium is produced and refined. It is believed that almost 65% of the entire opium poppy growing in the globe takes place in these mountainous regions. Recent seizures since 2022 reveal that trafficking in psychotropic drugs including heroin has shot up alarmingly as evident through seizures in some of the north eastern states. During January 2022 the total quantity of heroin seized on the same route was nearly 3 kgs and worth around Rs.15 crore. The seizures in 2021 were notable as quantities were huge. From July to October 2021, a total of approximately 20 kgs of heroin was seized by police mostly in Karbi Anglong and a few from Dimapur. On December 9,2022 Assam Police intercepted two trucks and seized 30,000 Yaba tablets from a truck bearing Nagaland registration number and 757.15gm of heroin packed in 55 soap cases from another truck with Manipur number plate. The tablets and the heroin were estimated to be worth around Rs.7 crore in the international market. On Jnauary 19,2023 Troopers of Assam Rifles seized a large consignment of heroin worth over Rs 2 crores in Mizoram’s Aizawl district. On January 20,2023 nine people were arrested at Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district with drugs worth over Rs.15 crore. On January 21,2023 security forces seized 1.40 kgs of heroin worth Rs.2 crore in the market from a couple in Peren. On June 3,2023 Assam Police seized drugs and heroin worth Rs.10 crore in street value from Cachar district. On June 20,2023 nine people were arrested for smuggling drugs worth over Rs 15 crore in two separate incidents in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district. On July 7,2023 police manning the Khuzama check gate, seized heroin worth approximately Rs 66.67 lakh. The quantity of heroin and assorted drugs seized in 2022 by Nagaland Police was estimated to be worth Rs.117.28 crore in the illicit global market. These are only seizures during 2022 till date which is perhaps just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The drug trade in proliferating which has devastated states in the north east. The situation calls for declaration of total war on illicit drugs and psychotropic substances if the future generation is to be saved.
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