Narcotics

India's drug problem: supply and demand

India's geography makes it a natural transit and destination country. Afghan heroin — Afghanistan has produced over 80% of global opium — moves through Pakistan into Punjab and Delhi, or by sea to Gujarat and Kerala ports. From the east, Myanmar's Shan State supplies heroin and methamphetamine ('ya ba') through Manipur and Mizoram. India is also one of the world's largest licit producers of opium (for pharmaceuticals) and a major manufacturer of precursor chemicals, creating diversion risks.

On the demand side, the 2019 National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use estimated over 3 crore cannabis users, 2.3 crore opioid users and lakhs dependent on injectable drugs. Punjab's heroin epidemic, the North-East's injecting-drug crisis and rising synthetic drug use among urban youth are the sharpest edges of the problem.

• Afghanistan produces the bulk of global opium; Myanmar is the regional meth hub.
• India licitly cultivates opium in MP, UP and Rajasthan under strict licensing.
• Punjab, the North-East and metro cities are the worst-affected demand centres.
• Tramadol and other pharmaceutical opioids are abused at scale.

Legal and institutional framework

The NDPS Act 1985 consolidates earlier laws and provides graded punishment based on quantity (small, intermediate, commercial), with the death penalty possible for repeat commercial-quantity offences. The 2014 amendment eased access to morphine for palliative care and strengthened treatment provisions. The PMLA attaches drug money, and the PITNDPS Act 1988 allows preventive detention of traffickers.

The NCB coordinates enforcement nationally and internationally; the DRI, Customs, BSF, Coast Guard and state police handle interdiction. The Narcotics Control Bureau's zonal units, the Joint Coordination Committee, and the Narco Coordination Centre (NCORD, 2016) improve inter-agency synergy. India is party to the three UN drug conventions (1961, 1971, 1988) and cooperates through the Colombo Plan, SAARC and bilateral pacts.

• NDPS quantity-based punishment: small, intermediate, commercial.
• PITNDPS 1988: preventive detention of habitual traffickers.
• NCORD mechanism (2016) coordinates centre-state anti-drug action.
• India is a party to the 1961, 1971 and 1988 UN drug conventions.

Narco-terrorism and the security dimension

Drug trafficking and terrorism feed each other. Pakistan-based networks push Afghan heroin into Punjab and Kashmir, with profits recycled to militant groups; consignments seized at Mundra and other Gujarat ports have been linked to terror financing. In the North-East, Myanmar-sourced drugs finance insurgent groups, and the region's instability since Myanmar's 2021 coup has sharply increased flows.

Security responses include BSF and drone surveillance on the western border, coastal radar chains and Coast Guard interdiction, and the NIA's investigation of narco-terror cases. The 2022 seizure of nearly 3,000 kg of heroin at Mundra port — one of the world's largest — showed both the scale of the threat and the vulnerability of trade routes.

• Heroin via Punjab border and Gujarat coast funds cross-border militancy.
• Myanmar instability since 2021 has flooded the North-East with meth and heroin.
• Mundra port seizure (2021): ~3,000 kg heroin, among the largest ever.
• Drones are now used to drop drugs and arms across the Punjab border.

New challenges and the way forward

Three shifts define the current challenge: synthetic drugs (methamphetamine, MDMA, fentanyl precursors) that need no farmland; darknet markets with cryptocurrency payments and dead-drop delivery; and the exploitation of legitimate trade — containers, courier parcels and postal routes. Enforcement capacity, forensic labs and financial investigation have not kept pace.

A balanced strategy needs supply reduction (interdiction, alternative development in source regions, border technology), demand reduction (treatment, de-addiction centres, Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan) and harm reduction (needle exchange, opioid substitution therapy), alongside diplomatic work with Afghanistan's neighbours and Myanmar. Treating addiction as a health issue, not merely crime, is essential to shrink the market.

• Synthetic drugs bypass crop-control strategies entirely.
• Darknet + crypto + courier is the new trafficking stack.
• Demand reduction: treatment and rehabilitation, not just arrests.
• Harm reduction (OST, needle exchange) cuts HIV and overdose deaths.

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