Police to organise drug abuse awareness drive in Shimla dist’s education institutions

The Shimla district police officers are set to organise awareness campaigns against drug abuse in all the educational institutions in the district during November. This was stated by Deputy Commissioner (DC) Shimla, Anupam Kashyap, as he chaired a district-level meeting of the Narcotics Coordination Center (NCORD) here today.

The DC said that all the police officers would be required to wear their uniforms while addressing the students during the campaign. He added that the field staff should make time to visit nearby educational institutions to this end.

He also directed the various NGOs working at the educational institutions at the panchayat level to obtain permission from the DC office carry put their operations at these educational institutions or within government jurisdictions. Kashyap said that it had been observed that many NGOs were not working effectively at the ground level, and thus they’ll be allowed to carry out their work only after securing proper authorisation from the DC office. Directions in this regard have been issued to all Sub-Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) in the district.

He further said that the police had completed 90 per cent of the work related to the setting up an information network against drug abuse at the panchayat level with the cooperation of public representatives. “Through these representatives, the police are receiving regular intelligence inputs which has helped curbing drug menace. Additionally, the police has also started using drone surveillance to curb illegal cultivation of cannabis,” he said.

During the meeting, the DC also appealed to all medical store owners in the district to not sell syringes to anyone without a valid doctor’s slip. “Syringes are increasingly being used for drug abuse. Therefore, they should only be sold if the doctor’s prescription clearly mentions syringes. Moreover, pharmacists must keep a photocopy of the ID card of the person making such a purchase and should also maintain proper records,” Kashyap said.

Highlighting the total number of persons arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the DC said, “This year, so far, as many as 501 persons have been arrested under 224 NDPS cases in the distict.” He added that the police had seized about 7.3kg of chitta (heroin), 78.28kg of charas (cannabis), 25.63kg of opium, 3.77kg of poppy husk, 2.8g of smack, and 48g of MDMA. Among the arrested individuals, 25 are foreign nationals, 62 are from other states and 414 are residents of Himachal Pradesh, the DC said.