Hyderabad: Cops to keep an eagle eye to nail down drug users

Hyderabad: Till now the city police were arresting drug peddlers and kingpins; very rarely they could lay hands on consumers. This scenario is about to change as the police top brass has upped the ante against them to eradicate the menace of drugs from society.

An officer on condition of anonymity said, "The police department is working hard to end the drug menace. Off late it has been observed that if the supply chain (peddlers) of drugs is decreasing, the demand chain (consumers) is going high due to shortage of drugs." "This phenomenon is being en-cashed by the drug syndicates as they know that if supply is reduced then the demand will grow much higher due to addiction of consumers. Also, in most cases it is observed that the arrested small-time peddlers, were given away by their own bosses; it was done with a purpose to create more demand for drugs."

"For this reason, we have decided that we will go after drug consumers in a fierce way and book cases against them. We are taking legal opinion about this issue and intend to give more teeth to Section 27 of the NDPS Act and make cases strong against hardcore drug abusers. We are also planning more awareness campaigns against drug usage and will show disadvantages of consumption and punishment given to drug abusers," added the officer.

The war against drugs by the police began when the issue was highlighted by an Opposition leader and since the seizure of large quantities of drugs from Gujarat. They have been nabbing drug peddlers. Recently, an inter-State gang of seven was arrested. By their confessions, the police realised that a drug syndicate is very much active in the city. For this reason, the department is more active to curb the menace, but by adopting a reverse approach of ending it.