Social Justice

KEY POINTS

·         The Punjab government has been piloting a strong crackdown on the drug menace that has become widely prevalent in the state. 

·         In this regard, recently an order was passed for conducting mandatory drug tests on all the 3.5 lakh government employees (including the police).

·         But this is expected to be little more than mere eye-catchy tokenism as the main demography trapped in drugs are unemployed youth.

·         Also, Punjab cabinet’s recommendation to recommend death for drug-peddlers is mere sensationalism rather than a concrete step.

·         Notably, capital punishment hasn’t proved an effective deterrent in previous instances and is anyway abhorrent.

·         Some other steps like banning sale of syringes without a prescription would be seen as a knee-jerk reaction.

·         Here, what is more worrying is, there are no reliable data about the scale of the drug problem. The best figures available are based on a very small survey.

·         So, the measures being adopted are in response to a problem whose scope and size are, at best, a wild guess.

·         The government and people of Punjab must engage in serious reflection and debate based on accurate data about the scale and nature of the drug menace, before adopting a cure that may turn out to be much worse than the disease.

Way ahead

·         A comprehensive war on drugs on several fronts is required.

·         This would include interventions in the community to spread awareness and foster a culture against the use of drugs.

·         The politicians have a very crucial role to play in resolving the crisis, and they need to think beyond party lines to achieve this.

·         Resorting to sensationalism to score political brownie points might only complicate the situation by dissuading real brainstorming.

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