Chitta red-flagged

The forensic report pointing out that chitta, a semi-synthetic heroin derivative, being smuggled into Himachal Pradesh from Punjab is more addictive and fatal than the one sourced from Delhi is a red flag that should shake up the authorities into going all out to wipe out the nefarious activity by nabbing the drug lords and breaking the nexus of the mafia and their facilitators.

While Punjab long back shifted from being a transit centre for the smuggling of drugs from the ‘Golden Crescent’ (Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan) to Europe to finding itself in the grip of a drug addiction menace as packets of narcotic substances began to be opened and consumed in the state itself, the inability of the law enforcement agencies to tame the illicit activity has come at a heavy socio-economic cost. Even as the battle remains uphill in Punjab, its tentacles have spread deep and wide to Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. With drug peddling from the eastern Golden Triangle (Myanmar, Laos and Thailand) thriving simultaneously, the prevalence of the use of psychotropic drugs, heroin, charas, ganja, chitta, opioids etc across the region is roughly three to four times the national average. What is more disturbing is that the efforts to contain the peril have remained inefficient and insufficient. Worse, it is majorly the youth (15-30 age category) that is lured into this dangerous trap. Now, the highly hazardous nature of chitta only makes the return from addiction more difficult.

Sadly, the drug peddlers manage to remain a few steps ahead of the authorities. Poor locals rather than foreigners are being more frequently recruited as carriers even as advanced tech — the Dark Net and drones — is being used for evading the cops. The Punjab Police cannot shift the blame on to the BSF’s new jurisdictional rules and wash their hands of the unbridled smuggling activities that go on in the border districts. The war waged on chitta by the Jharag panchayat of Shimla is inspiring. More such wars are needed to help nail the smugglers who are no less than murderers.