Almost every day, Punjab police reports another recovery of kilograms of illegal drugs. These recoveries are presented as evidence of the government’s campaign against drugs, but the frequency of such seizures raises an uncomfortable question: if kilograms of narcotics are still being recovered almost every day, how much has actually changed on the ground?
The Punjab government’s anti-drug campaign has now been running for more than one and a half years. Yet the recurring pattern remains familiar police announce seizures, arrests are made and press releases are issued, while the illegal drug supply chain appears far from eliminated. The public deserves to know whether these operations are actually dismantling the networks behind the trade or merely catching those at the bottom of the chain.
A successful anti-drug campaign cannot be measured only by the number of FIRs, arrests or kilograms seized. The real test is whether drug availability has declined, whether major suppliers and financiers have been identified, whether convictions are increasing, whether addiction is falling and whether young people are being protected from entering the drug market.
After more than 18 months of an intensive government campaign, Punjab deserves a public report card. How many major traffickers have been convicted? How many properties and financial assets linked to drug networks have been identified and legally confiscated? Has street-level availability actually declined? How many addicts have been successfully rehabilitated?
The government cannot continue indefinitely with a cycle of “recovery today, recovery tomorrow and another recovery the day after.” Recoveries are necessary, but they are not the final result. The ultimate objective must be to make drugs harder to obtain, break the organised networks supplying them and prevent another generation of Punjabis from becoming victims.
The campaign may be continuing. But the question Punjab is asking is simple: after one and a half years, where are the measurable results?
Punjab Outlook — Investigative Analysis
Independent reporting and analysis in the public interest.