There are many places in Delhi where you can buy food all day long. But there are also places where you can buy banned drugs throughout the day.
In places like Tagore Garden, you can buy heroin and marijuana very easily. The seller told us that irrespective of whether we came here at five in the morning or 12 at night, we will get the stuff easily. Siddharth (20), who is a regular customer here, told us that he has been injecting heroin for about a year and that his life has become a complete mess. He also told us that in many instances, he had to steal money from his house and had also stolen his mom’s gold necklace.
We also visited Seemapuri, and the locals told us that most of the kids living here are drug addicts. Furthermore, the people told us that the addicts are also involved in robbery and pickpocketing. Rakesh, who owns an automobile repairing shop there, told us that many a time, the addicts had stolen the car batteries and other parts.
A research conducted by the city’s Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences on over 500 inmates at the Prayas Observation Home For Boys stated that out of the total number of juveniles booked for different crimes, over 87% had a history of substance abuse. Shridhar Sharma, a former high-ranking official in the Union health ministry, said that a drug-crime correlation was noted between the consumption of marijuana and murder, and the consumption of opioids with snatching-related offences.
When we asked them about what actions the government has taken to prevent drug abuse, an official at the Narcotics Control Bureau told us that on June 28, 2017, they had organised the 15th run against drug abuse at the India Gate lawns. They also organise many thematic events in colleges and universities. They told us that till August 2017, they had captured 27 criminals in drug-trafficking and had seized over 20.6 kilograms of cocaine, 1.3 kilograms of heroin and 14.9 kilograms of charas in Delhi.
When asked whether they see Delhi being drug-free or not, they replied that they were looking forward to making the city drug-free in the next eight to 10 years.