Waging the war against drug

Drug abuse is a very long-standing and pervasive social scourge. The newspapers and the electronic media everyday carry reports on how the law enforcers are successfully busting drug rackets and seizing huge quantities of various kinds of drugs. One often reads about seizure of the so-called phensydyl, hashish, even wine, smuggled cigarettes and beverages from criminals' dens, airports and border areas. Reports on the capture of hard drugs like heroin, yaba, etc, are also published few and far between.

The newspaper readers and the television audience hardly give a serious attention to such reports. In fact, the stories on police operation that come in the press do hardly address the real problem. For the cross-border trade in cigarettes or wine does not come under the category drug trade proper. The phensydyl, too, cannot be termed a hard drug. So, when the success stories on the busting of the hard drug rackets are in question, one often draws a blank. Naturally, despite all the police raids, seizures and arrests of the criminals involved in those cases of illicit trafficking, the drug trade and its fallout-drug abuse-goes on unabated, and even continues to grow in strength with every passing day.

The man in the street, on the other hand, remains blas