Kolkata Police believes the fight against drugs should begin with lending a hand to the addicts and dragging them back from the brink even as efforts are made to eliminate the menace.
Starting off their anti-drugs central programme at Park Street on this note on Wednesday, the Kolkata Police top brass talked of their ‘Suddhi’ campaign, which had inducted 133 addicts a year ago. Of them, 21 have remained clean for a year, and 13 have found employment, giving up crimes they would commit to sponsor their addiction. Three of them are now civic volunteers. “It is like getting a new lease of life. It feels nice to defeat the curse with help of senior cops,” said one of them. Addressing students, commissioner Anuj Sharma said they had now started an outreach drive on social media and used #UnitedagainstDrugs to connect. “Awareness is the best defence,” he said. The event was attended by actors Dev, Aabir Chatterjee and Srabonti.
Wednesday being the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking, the Narcotics Cell of CID organized an awareness drive at Surendranath College.
A rally, too, was organized by the Bidhannagar Police, who took out the march from in front of the North police station to CII Suresh Neotia Auditorium in Salt Lake. Actor Dev, along with footballer P K Banerjee and minister Sujit Bose, inaugurated this rally as well. It was attended by students of 19 schools, two colleges, 15 local clubs and a number of celebrities. Some of those present recounted their journey from being an addict to undergoing rehabilitation and then returning to “normal healthy lives”.
CID officers encouraged everyone to look out for a drug victim, especially in Malda and Murshidabad, which had recently seen a sudden spurt. “Inclusion is the best policy. It is through social help and counselling that a victim can emerge victorious. Stress and peer pressure are definitely reasons behind drug abuse. Almost every youngster faces it and the real strength lies in saying no,” said Sandip Ganguly, OC, narcotics.
LSD is the most widely abused drugs in the form of stickers and blotting paper smuggled in from Singapore, Malaysia and the Middle East. As has been recorded in the 2017 Narcotics Control Bureau annual report, 29,270 kg cannabis and 3.17kg cocaine were seized in Bengal.
Source: Times of India
