A Drug-Free Tamil Nadu in the Making: DGP
Survey shows drug use in State far below the national average
Chennai: The intensive efforts by the DMK government, led by M K Stalin, had taken the State to the top position in preventing drug running through the repeated crackdowns on smugglers and actions like the freezing of bank accounts and properties since 2022, Director General of Police, Shankar Jiwal, said on Friday.
He listed the various awareness campaigns undertaken by the government and said that despite the statistics revealing the real picture on the low consumption of illicit drugs in the State, some vested interests had created a false narrative of a high level of drug use.
According to a survey by the Union Government, the usage of ganja in the State was just 0.1 percent, opiates 0.26 percent, sleeping tablets 0.3 percent and inhalers 0.2 percent, which was much lower than the national average, he said.
Another indication of the State moving towards becoming a drug-free State was the high rate of seizures made in the last four years, he said. More than a lakh kilograms of ganja had been confiscated since 2021 and cultivation of the weed had been completely stopped in the State, he said.
Other narcotics like heroin, methamphetamine, amphetamine, methaqualone and ganja chocolates had also been confiscated in large numbers and the State government was coordinating with other States from where narcotics was smuggled in and taking action to prevent the inflow of drugs, he said.
The DGP also mentioned the other steps taken by the government towards eradication of narcotic drugs in the State like the motivation of the enforcement agencies through incentives.
