Arguments for Further Amendments to the NDPS Act - 2285 Words

ONE FINAL STEP FORWARD: ARGUMENTS FOR FURTHER AMENDMENTS TO THE NDPS ACT. ï ¿ ¼INTRODUCTION: ï ¿ ¼Ministry of Finance (MoF) backed by the Prime minister’s office(PMO) has decided to consider the option of further amending the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) 1985 in the winter parliament session of 2015. The Ministry of Finance is expected to propose groundbreaking amendments which allow the state to introduce legal regulation of certain illicit drugs, including the decriminalization of marijuana possession. It is in this context that the Harm Reduction International – India Chapter (HRI-IC) has decided to commission this policy brief to provide recommendations that we believe should not be left out of the policy reform.†¦show more content†¦HRI-IC believes that the current drug policy in India has a deleterious effect on drug users and the youth of our nation – and therefore, feels duty bound to recommend the following policy changes in the NDPS Act: A. DELETION OF SECTION 27 FROM THE NDPS ACT: If incarceration reduced addiction, criminalization of addicts can be justified, but over the years drug addiction has only increased along with drug trafficking. (MOHFW, 2011) (Das, 2012). Stringent penalties provided for by the NDPS Act has done very little to deter drug use. In-fact, India houses the largest number of repeat offenders guilty of violating the NDPS Act. Around 63% of prisoners in India have a history of drug use and around 23% of the total number of prisoners has been apprehended for drug related offences (IHRN, 2009). In 2001 Portugal decriminalized possession, acquisition and consumption of narcotic substances for personal use. Ten years later irrefutable empirical evidence points to the fact that decriminalization did not lead to a spike in the number of drug dependent persons or an increase in drug related violence. On the contrary numerous studies show that there has been significant decline in petty crimes related to drug consumption like theft, because of availability of methadone treatment, decrease in HIV incidence amongst injecting drug users, along with reduction in recidivist crimes (Domoslawski, 2011)Show MoreRelatedIndia’s Drug Policy: Amend or Perish Essay examples2160 Words   |  9 Pagesof 25 years to impose this ban at the end of which the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) was enacted in conformity with the 1961 treaty. The Conundrum presented by Status Quo: †¢ Propagation of negative stereotypes: The most damaging aspect of the NDPS Act,1985 is that it rules out the possibility of an objective outlook on the multifaceted problem of drug abuse as the Act impetuously regards castigatory action as the only recourse (Letter to Ministry of Finance, 2012)