Thiruvananthapuram : The menace of drug use and sale is huge and govt has initiated measures to deal with it, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Assembly on Wednesday. Not Enforcement alone, the situation calls for coordinated efforts of varied departments, said CM, responding to the Call-in Attention motion presented by PC Vishnunath.
It is undisputed that drug use and its trade has grown to threatening levels in our society. There is significant rise in drug abuse and there are changes to how it is used. The issue is not confined to our state or even country. The state government views the problem with grave concern. The number of drug busts and cache’s by authorities have seen marked increase lately – something that became possible from coordination of various wings, said CM.
Police and Excise jointly conduct the operations. Quoting statistics, CM said, there have been 4650 drug abuse cases in 2020 and 5334 in the year 2021. As on 29th of August, there have been 16,128 cases registered. Drug arrests in 2020 figured at 5674, while in 2021 they rose to 6704. In 2022, 17,834 have been arrested so far.
On the contraband front, 1340 kilos of ganja, 6.7 kilo MDMA and 23.4 kilo hash oil have been confiscated.
In times earlier, drug abuse meant use of substances like ganja. Now synthetic drugs are in vogue and it poses a serious threat to society. These kind of substances make their way into places including schools and other educational institutions. Some of the cases caught pertain to these premises, said CM.
