Drive against yaba business

News of yaba hauls is making rounds with unrelenting regularity. A large haul of the deadly drug in Chittagong is followed by another at a place in the capital or elsewhere. Over the past week or so this was the pattern of seizure of this banned substance by the law enforcement agencies. But the piece of news that beat all such incidents of yaba haul is the one concerning the pre-emptive blitzkrieg-like swoop by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on the vehicle carrying a yaba-manufacturing plant from Chittagong to Dhaka. Thus the arrest of the man who planned to install the plant in Dhaka after a trial run in Chittagong has foiled the production of the illegal item on a mass scale.
There is however no guarantee that he is the only person to have tried his hand at this dangerous business. He hired a national from Myanmar, who is expert in operating the machine used for manufacture of yaba. This drug's Myanmar connection is quite well known. So, there is nothing to be surprised if more like him are engaged in the underworld manufacture of the banned item. Easy availability, its many varieties and its hauls indicate that both its smuggling from outside the country and its local manufacture may be the reason for it. The law enforcement agencies are doing a commendable job by hauling large supplies at different spots or en route to specific destinations. But like gold smugglers who are also using Bangladesh both as a route and a destination, the smugglers of contraband substances like yaba are also doing the same. Involved here is big money and the local drug dealers are playing the pawns at the hands of an international underworld ring.
So to fight the menace of yaba or any other drug, there is a need for government-to-government cooperation. No sane government can allow the spread of drug addiction within its border. All are aware that one of the greatest curses to befall today's human civilisation is drug addiction. It has posed a grave threat to societies irrespective of their financial status. So the threat has to be encountered collectively across the borders. At the same time, the law enforcement agencies should always be on their toes to bust the den of drug dealers, the sources in particular. Now that the suspicion of mass production of yaba locally cannot be ruled out, the watch over such underground activities should be made more intensive and widespread as well. The channel of the international ring has to be plugged and the wings of the local collaborators clipped in order to get the best possible result. Gold smuggled into the country at least does not lead to waste of life for hordes of youths but yaba and similar other substance does. So, priority should be given to rooting out its clandestine business if the country wants to avoid a disaster of outsize proportion in the near future.