View: India must not mimic West's 'War on Drugs'

One of the world's most overly punitive, confusing and ineffective drug laws seems to be readying for change. In a paradigm-shifting move, India's ministry of social justice and empowerment recently sent a proposal to the department of revenue to decriminalise possession of small quantities of all 'hard drugs' as defined in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The suggestions purportedly step away from subjecting drug users to irrational aspects of the criminal justice system, and puts science and public health before punishment and incarceration.Possession of drugs is as much an offence under the NDPS Act as their sale, purchase and production. The punishment does not depend on whether the possession or purchase is for personal use or for resale, but depends on the quantity of the drug. While 'decriminalisation' sounds like music to the ears, court-mandated substance abuse treatment actually maintains status quo.In the existing NDPS Act, Section 64A, which was added in 1989, already provides full immunity from prosecution to addicts volunteering for treatment. It provides immunity to the addict not only for consumption (Section 27) but also for offences involving small quantities of drugs. So, it's unclear what is new in this latest proposal. One hopes this doesn't amount to addicts getting immunity only for consumption while revoking it quietly for all 'offences' involving small quantity of drugs. This would make our drug laws even more regressive than they already are.In 2017, the Sikkim Anti-Drugs Act (SADA) was amended to recognise the difference between 'peddlers' and 'users'. This enabled Sikkim to channelise its healthcare services to the most vulnerable of drug users. However, anybody caught with small quantities of drugs were now categorised as a consumer, while those caught with larger quantities were categorised as peddlers. But differentiating between consumers and peddlers merely on the basis of the quantity of substance often led to users being arrested as peddlers.Such a quantity-based distinction fails to recognise that a large group of people turn to peddling to support their addiction, and harsher punishment becomes a big hindrance in their chances of recovery.Then there is the matter of court-mandated substance abuse treatment in the proposal. In the 2012 'Gurjit Singh vs State of Punjab' judgment, the Punjab-Haryana High Court encouraged that the petitioner be sent to a state-run rehabilitation centre for treatment on an 'experimental basis'. The court further directed the Punjab government to identify addicts involved in NDPS cases and make arrangements for their treatment and consequential rehabilitation. Referring to the rise of a therapeutic culture in the US where drug offenders are treated as victims of a biopsychosocial disease, the court suggested that state(s) be directed to provide treatment as alternative to prisons, separate youth detention facilities in jails and probation homes.This is all very well. But where is the infrastructure today to support such a rehabilitative approach? Also, addiction treatment in India remains overwhelmingly medieval, to put it lightly. There is a huge difference between a recreational user and an addict, the same way a social drinker is not an alcoholic. The new laws will give immunity to an addict, but will it provide immunity to a user? In a court, will a recreational user who is not an addict then claim to be one to avoid incarceration?The Indian State and society are still unsure whether a drug addict is a criminal or a diseased person. The NDPS Act throws a drug user behind bars, while the social justice ministry on its website says it 'recognises' drug abuse as a 'psycho-socio-medical problem', 'use' and 'abuse' being interchanged freely.We need to define addiction as an illness in the Indian legislature. The government, on its part, should launch an insurance scheme to cover the cost of treatment, de-addiction and rehabilitation for drug addicts. This will also encourage private insurance companies to include it in their health insurance policies. After decriminalising all drug use, defining addiction as an illness, and including it in the NDPS Act and the Mental Healthcare Act, GoI must ensure that all drug addicts are treated equally before the law as any other physically or mentally ill patient.India's drug policy was copy-pasted from the US via Richard Nixon's declaration of 'war on drugs' in 1971. Let's not repeat the same mistakes again of blindly copying the west if we don't make policies that are truly based on science, compassion, health and human rights. Instead, India should recognise, as WHO and the International Narcotic Control Board do, that there is no evidence that compulsory drug detention or mandatory drug treatment is beneficial for an effective environment for treatment of drug dependence.The writer is a photographer and filmmaker, and co-founder, Alliance to Protect Drug Users (APDU)

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