India has destroyed only about 30% of illicit narcotics seized over the past decade, results of the country’s first-ever official drug survey revealed on Monday.
The Indian government has impounded about 5.1 million kg of drugs in the past 10 years but successfully destroyed only 1.6 million, the Indian Express newspaper reported.
The total amount of drugs confiscated by police in various states, the country’s Narcotics Control Bureau, and the Central Board for Excise and Customs comprises 1.9 million kg of marijuana, 29,000 kg of heroin, 22,000 kg of charas (a handmade form of cannabis), 15,000 kg of opium and about 2 million kg of “other contraband.”
The findings were revealed by advocate Ajit Kumar Sinha, who was appointed to oversee the study by the country’s Supreme Court during an appeal hearing in 2012. The appeal was against the acquittal of an accused drug trafficker, who was exonerated because of the prosecutors’ inability to show that the opium he was caught with was destroyed.
The court expressed concern that the procedural lapse in destroying drugs increased the risk that they would be smuggled back into public circulation.
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Write to Rishi Iyengar at rishi.iyengar@timeasia.com