Chandigarh: Several civil society activists, scholars and politicians have joined hands to launch a campaign demanding that a controlled sale of traditional drugs - opium, poppy husk and cannabis, be legalised in the state. The demand came at a time when the Punjab state government was busy showcasing seizures and arrests made by the police under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act as its achievement at national platforms.
The campaign will be anchored by scholars and politicians like Dr SS Johal, Chancellor, Central University of Punjab; Aam Aadmi Party MPs HS Khalsa and Dr Dharamvira Gandhi; Dr SS Gill, former Vice-Chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot; Prof Jagmohan Singh, nephew of martyr Bhagat Singh and general secretary of Association for Democratic Rights, RS Bains, noted human rights lawyer; and Dr Chaman Lal, former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. They have based their argument on controlled drug sale policies introduced by Portugal, Brazil and some states of the US which had led to a lowering in drug addiction. Supporters of the legalisation claim that the enforcement of the NDPS Act has led to the monopoly of some illegal drug cartels.
“Time has come to shed the moralistic cloud surrounding the subject and demystify it through a modern and scientific approach and with the age-old empiricism of the past,” said Dr Dharamvira Gandhi. “The aim is to build a large pressure group that would force all the major parties to come up with a blueprint detailing how they would deal with the crisis. Merely accusing leaders of other parties is not the solution. We need a policy change,” he added.
