AIZAWL:
To mark International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which falls on June 26, drugs worth Rs 2,362 crore were incinerated at the Trinity Hospital and Research Centre situated in the southern outskirts of Aizawl, on June 24.
The drugs destroyed included 18.243 kg of heroin, 753.045 kg of Methamphetamine, 87 kg of pseudoephedrine, 71.942 kg of marijuana and other clinical drugs including cough syrup, widely abused by the youths.
Mizoram Police, as part of the observance of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, also launched an awareness campaign on the ill-effects of drugs in 39 schools across the state covering all the 11 districts. Signature campaigns were also conducted in schools and several places.
State home minister Lalchamliana, in a short function before the destruction of the seized contraband, admitted that the state still could not be made drug-free despite coordinated efforts of the enforcement agencies and the civil societies.
Lalchamliana stressed on the need for improvement of the intelligence network to tackle the drug menace in the state and emphasised that more efforts should be made in demand as well as supply reduction by creating awareness among the school children and the general public.
In order to combat drug menace on a war footing, efforts have been made to open two offices of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the state, he said, adding that drug addicts should not be treated as junkies, but as patients.
State DGP Devesh Chandra Srivastva said that the police have been working round the clock to combat the drug problems in the state resulting in seizure of 10.77 kg of heroin, 39.689 kg of Methamphetamine and other drugs during this year till June 22.
Srivastva lamented that Mizoram has been one of the major conduits for drug trafficking from the infamous Golden Triangle via the 404-km long porous international border with Myanmar.
Trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances through Myanmar border had increased considerably after the military coup in the neighbouring country during early February last year.
Law enforcement agencies attributed the increase in trafficking to the absence of efficient administration due to the raging civil war in Myanmar.