Ahmedabad: The city’s crime branch initiated a study on rehabilitative provisions within the NDPS Act, potentially transforming how young drug offenders are treated. Notices were issued to nearly 90 youngsters, including families of teenagers, identified during investigations for ordering or possessing small amounts of drugs.
The study focuses on Section 64A of the NDPS Act — a 2001 amendment offering immunity from prosecution to drug users who voluntarily seek de-addiction treatment. Currently, young offenders charged under Section 27 of the NDPS Act for consumption or possession of small drug quantities face a punitive cycle of arrest, custody, and trial before accessing treatment alternatives.
An internal request memo from the DCP, crime branch, Ajit Rajian, to all zonal DCPs outlines this initiative. The study will be conducted by ACP headquarters (Gomtipur) Advait Gandhi, who will collaborate with the crime branch. “We issued notices to 90 individuals and received an encouraging response from them,” Rajian said.
“This leads to substance users, particularly the youth, being labelled as criminals, and they have to go through the life-destroying experience of a jail term. After such an initiative by police, addicts may directly opt to undergo treatment at the stage of investigation itself,” states the memo. According to the memo, the primary objective is determining how to implement the provision of Section 64A in NDPS investigations by Ahmedabad police. It emphasizes the legislative intent of adopting a “reformative approach towards drug users,” suggesting rehabilitation opportunities should be offered at the earliest point of contact with law enforcement, without waiting for judicial intervention.
The memo also notes that law enforcement agencies allocate substantial resources to prosecuting drug users, resources that could be redirected toward targeting drug traffickers.
The project outlined several key objectives, including studying the current status of individuals charged under the NDPS Act for consumption or possession of small quantities, creating a process similar to Punjab police’s rehabilitation initiative, prioritising “health over criminalisation,” and “exploring how this approach might reduce drug demand, ease police investigative burden, and decrease NDPS trial court cases.” The study suggests a reformative approach could lead to decreased drug use, fewer overdose deaths, and reduced drug-related HIV rates.