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Another celeb has been arrested lately for possession of medicine, and the media circus has come again to city with its main clowns. Neither the sufferings of the strolling lifeless on the Indian roads throughout the first lockdown, the persevering with farmers’ wrestle, the Chinese incursion into our land, scathing unemployment statistics nor the collapse of well being infrastructure and lifeless our bodies floating within the Ganga throughout the second Covid wave have claimed a lot air time or actual property house in media than the lurid particulars of Bollywood rave events, arrests, public humiliation and media trials of some B-grade actors.
Similar raids have been carried out final yr in Bengaluru, and plenty of Kannada movie artists have been arrested for possession of illicit medication with the accompanying media frenzy. It is a win-win state of affairs for all. Any information associated to the silver display screen sells properly; the cops come out as James Bond clones by arresting some child with three grams of illicit medication from a school dormitory. The information of some actor being marched in handcuffs like a terrorist who had tried to explode the Parliament and Red Fort is infinitely extra entertaining to observe than a Nobel Prize winner warning concerning the impending financial collapse.
What makes possession of medicine such a giant crime? India has had a historical past of psychedelic utilization since Vedic instances. The ritualistic consumption of divine Soma finds an vital place in Vedic rituals. Bhang varieties an integral a part of Holi and Shivaratri celebrations within the type of thandai, and a few temples even serve the particular ‘baba ka prasad’ as a novel pious providing. There are even government-approved bhang outlets in lots of north Indian cities resembling Varanasi, Jaisalmer, Pushkar and so forth.
However, the usage of hashish is unlawful in most states of India. As per Section 10 of the NDPS Act 1985, whoever is licenced to provide bhang shall be allowed to make it from the leaves of the wildly grown hashish vegetation solely. They shall not use the flowering tops or the resin produced from the vegetation. How such guidelines will be applied is anybody’s guess in a rustic the place hashish can also be industrially cultivated. How would one distinguish whether or not the bhang was produced from wildly rising hashish, and whether or not solely its flower, and never the industrially cultivated one, was used?
The above is simply an instance of the weird legal guidelines that cope with medication in India. The punishments as per the NDPS Act are fairly stiff. Cultivation of hashish with no licence can get you rigorous imprisonment of 10 years. Possession of medicine like cocaine, as small as two gm, can get you rigorous imprisonment of 1 yr. India sees drug consumption or possession by itself as a legal offence.
This is towards pure justice. Any exercise will be unlawful solely when it causes hurt to others and the society, or is towards the nation’s pursuits. The criminalisation of drug use is meant to guard the person from the dangerous results of medicine, however such an act can solely hurt the person. The blanket ban on every kind of medicine within the NDPS Act is one other complicated factor. The vary of medicine is staggering—hashish, opioids, tramadol, amphetamine and MDMA, the listing is exhaustive, and every kind of medicine are bracketed collectively. Even carrying a drug for medicinal functions with no legitimate prescription may result in arrest and prosecution.
There isn’t any readability on what constitutes consumption. For any legal proceedings, one must show a criminal offense has been dedicated at a particular time, by somebody, towards somebody and with a motive or motive. At what stage can consuming a drug be constituted as a criminal offense? Is the crime deemed to have been dedicated after consuming the drug or within the act of consuming the drug? A homicide or a theft dedicated a few years in the past, if proved as we speak, can rightfully result in prosecution and punishment. But, if somebody has used a drug as soon as, a few years in the past, can he be prosecuted now or within the distant future for that crime? There isn’t any distinction between leisure customers or addicts.
The decide can ship each to the de-addiction centre no matter whether or not you’re a first-time person, unintended possessor or a drug junkie, or he can ship each to the jail. In a rustic the place police have been accused of fixing innocents, even on homicide expenses, one can think about how simple is it to repair anybody for possessing two or three grams of some substance. Last yr, the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy got here up with a examine analysing the NDPS circumstances in Mumbai. As excessive as 97.7 % of 12,946 circumstances in 2017 and 97.3 % of 9,743 circumstances in 2018 concerned possession for private consumption, as per the report. Cannabis accounted for 87 % of all arrests in Mumbai, and people arrested have been principally the needy and the poor. Just a few excessive profile circumstances involving celebrities bookend the state of affairs.
Just like how the Mental Healthcare Act prevented the criminalisation of tried suicide, it’s time to decriminalise the utilization of medicine. Drug customers want counselling, and within the case of addicts, rehabilitation and never legal punishments. As of now, the NDPS Act of criminalising the utilization has grow to be a software for harassment. The industrial producer, distributor and vendor of the medication shall be handled severely by the legislation, however the person who’s a sufferer ought to be spared and helped.
Anand Neelakantan
Author of Asura, Ajaya sequence, Vanara and Bahubali trilogy
mail@asura.co.in
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