Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, barring some minor exemptions here and there based on the historical and cultural compulsions of some nations, are banned across the globe. All the nations, including those harboring the perpetrators, have consensus on this subject, aegis United Nations. Drugs are therefore banned. In fact, drugs are only banned. Alcohol, tobacco, arms including fissile material, rapes, murders and for that matter nothing is so banned as drugs. No licenses are given to trade and no allowance for personal consumption except some very mild derivatives if prescribed medically that too in few of the countries.

I have never done drugs and have no qualms in accepting that I have literally half knowledge of the subject I am trying to dabble with. An incorrigible inquisitive being as I am will some day take a shot, God forbid. I, during my job in an anti-smuggling agency, came across hundreds of shocking and surprising cases of narcotics smuggling.

I have seen officers hating to do seizures of narcotic drugs given the relatively arduous and meticulous task of prosecution in these cases. Believably most of those involved in legislation and enforcement of laws related to narcotic drugs have also never tried drugs. Like me they too have an unshakable belief in the laboratory tests proving that these drugs are highly addictive, and hence morally destructive. Drugs can ruin generations and nations, everyone agrees.

Let me play devil’s advocate and ask-what will happen if the ban is lifted and those who desire to deal in drugs are asked to set shops? One scenario, I can assume, that everyone will be doing drugs. But the second but more probable outcome I can see is that the economy of drugs will come crashing down.

Poppy, marijuana and cannabis are the herbs as old as any other medicinal herb or any other weed. The law was never so stringent and the threat never so alarming. It was the emergence of synthetic drugs that took the trade to dangerous proportions. The game became bigger and the nexus all-powerful.

Narcotic drugs are consumed by a vulnerable and spoilt section of the society. There have been cases that the drugs are used for adulterating the street food for ‘hooking’ the innocent youngsters. Mostly these are found to be stories blown out of proportion by anti-drug campaigners. Drugs are mostly consumed by rich and spoilt kids at ultra end of the spectrum and by the destitute at the infra-end. There is a very large section of the society, called middle class that has nothing to do with drugs. Even in upper and lower classes it just stray people doing drugs. In that case what this Big ado is all about. A person knowingly taking drugs is a deserving case to suffer of its effects. The state needs to be sensitive to the spread of ills in the society and take adequate measures to stop it. But how one will justify the severity of punishment, going up to life imprisonment and capital sentence in a trade however illegal that may be. The drug dealers are doing it for money. The damages caused to the society and humanity are irreparable but to some extent incidental. The consumer of drugs is by any means more responsible for the affliction than the trafficker. The narcotics trade has to be dealt with an iron hand but not by draconian laws.

The incommensurate scale of punishment has promoted the trade of drugs more than deterring it. It has taken the margin of profit to such an obnoxious level that the drug mafia has become the financier of all other illegal trades such as arms, money –laundering, smuggling, human trafficking. The drug lords wield so much of power that they can buy political protection. That makes the nexus powerful enough to influence legislation. Sometimes you are forced to think that there is a design or a tacit understanding to have this kind of enactment. If not then there should be some attempt to review and retook. Take the example of flesh trade. By relaxing the law it becomes a legitimate way of earning for the victim and a social stigma for the exploiter. Narcotics are more or less a social problem and needs to be dealt as an offence against society and not a crime against humanity.

The vested interests will perhaps not like that. For them, the economic and political stakes are too high.