BASIC FEATURES OF THE NARCOTIC DRUGS AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES ACT, 1985

The Act is designed to fulfill India’s treaty obligations under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

The NDPS Act 1985 sets out the statutory framework for drug law enforcement in India.The main elements of the control regime mandated by the Act are as follows:

a)    The cultivation, production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transportation, warehousing, consumption, inter-State movement, transshipment and import and export of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances is prohibited, except for medical or scientific purposes and in accordance with the terms and conditions of any license, permit or authorization given by the Government.

b)    The Central Government is empowered to regulate the cultivation, production, manufacture, import, export, sale, consumption, use etc of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

c)    State Governments are empowered to permit and regulate possession and inter-State movement of opium, poppy straw, the manufacture of medicinal opium and the cultivation of cannabis excluding hashish. (Section 10).

d)    All persons in India are prohibited from engaging in or controlling any trade whereby narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances are obtained outside India and supplied to any person outside India except with the previous authorisation of the Central Government and subject to such conditions as may be imposed by the Central Government.

e)    The Central Government is empowered to declare any substance, based on an assessment of its likely use in the manufacture of narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances as a controlled substance.

f)     Assets derived from drugs trafficking are liable to forfeiture

g)    Both the Central Government and State Governments are empowered to appoint officers for the purposes of the Act. Narcotics Control Bureau was set up by the Central Government in 1986 with the broad remit to coordinate drug law enforcement nationally.

h)    The NDPS Act is in effect a comprehensive code not only for the control and regulation of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances; but also for the control of selected chemicals – commonly known as precursors – which can be used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as for the investigation and forfeiture of drug related assets.

ENFORCEMENT

• Given India’s size and the federal nature of our polity, a number of agencies both at the Centre and in the States have been empowered to enforce the provisions of the Act.

These agencies include the

a)            Department of Customs and Central Excise,

b)            the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence,

c)            the Central Bureau of Narcotics and

d)            the Central Bureau of Investigation at the Central level and

e)            State Police and Excise Departments at the State level.

• The Union Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment and Health are responsible for the demand reduction aspects of drug law enforcement which broadly covers health-care and the deaddiction, rehabilitation and social reintegration of addicts.
• Section 4(3) of the Act envisages the creation of a Central Authority to coordinate the activities of the various Central and State agencies involved in drug law enforcement, to implement India’s obligations under various international conventions, and to coordinate with international organizations and authorities in foreign countries in the prevention and suppression of the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
• In terms of this provision, the Narcotics Control Bureau was set up by the Central Government in 1986 with the broad remit to coordinate drug law enforcement nationally.
• The empowerment of a large number of agencies under the NDPS Act ensures that India’s drug laws are enforced effectively on the ground. The NCB basically functions as the national coordinator international liaison and as the nodal point for the collection and for dissemination of intelligence. This system assures coordinated implementation within the parameters of a broad national strategy.

INVESTIGATIVE PROCEDURES

The act empowers officers duly authorized by the Central Government or a State Government to issue warrants, to enter and search premises, to stop and search conveyances, to seize narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, to take statements and to arrest persons suspected of having committed an offence, punishable under the Act.

LICIT OPIUM CULTIVATION

India is the largest licit producer of opium in the world, which is both exported as well as used by the domestic pharmaceutical industry. The licit cultivation of opium in India is regulated and controlled by the Narcotics Commissioner of India in terms of the provisions of Sections 8, 9 and 5 of the NDPS Act. The Central Government announces an opium policy each year which sets out the terms and conditions subject to which licenses for the cultivation of opium shall be given, the areas where cultivation shall be allowed, the prices at which the opium crop shall be purchased by the Government and the minimum qualifying yield for a license in the ensuing crop year. The crop cycle runs from October to May. Based on this policy, the Narcotics Commissioner of India issues licenses to individual cultivators for specified tracts of land. The key elements of the licit opium control regime in India are as follows:

i)          Opium can be cultivated only on fields specifically licensed for the purpose.

ii)         The entire crop must be tendered to the Central Government at prices fixed by the Government.

iii)         Failure to tender the minimum qualifying yield can disentitle the cultivator to a license in the following crop season.

OFFENCES AND PENALTIES

Offences are triable by Special Courts and the punishments prescribed range from imprisonment from 10 to 20 years for first offences to 15 to 30 years for any subsequent offences together with monetory fines. The Act was amended in May 1989 to mandate the death penalty for second offences relating to contraventions involving more than certain quantities of specified narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

The Act, however, makes a distinction between possession for personal consumption and trafficking, the punishment for the former being limited to between six months and one year only.

Criticism

The NDPS Act has been criticized for clubbing marijuana, hashish and bhang with hard drugs like heroin, cocaine and crack.