Kerala Opposition Leader says drug enforcers should ‘net big fish instead of targeting hapless addicts’

Kerala's Leader of the Opposition criticizes government for targeting drug addicts instead of major traffickers, calls for action.

Kerala’s Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has accused the Excise and the police of “finding an easy target in hapless and vulnerable drug addicts instead of netting the big fish in the narcotic trade.”

He told a news conference at Aluva in Ernakulam on Saturday that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s “much-hyped” anti-narcotics enforcement drive had “missed the forest for the trees.”

Mr Satheesan commented against the backdrop of the police summons to actor Shine Tom Chacko after the latter absconded from a hotel in Kochi during an anti-narcotic raid recently. 

Mr Satheesan said drug addicts required sympathetic counselling, de-addiction and rehabilitation. “Currently, officers find easy targets in people with an addiction who relapse into their old ways when released on bail from prison. The sad cycle keeps repeating while the real traffickers walk free”, he said.

Mr Satheesan accused the government of dismally failing to squeeze narcotic supply chains, chiefly transnational networks which inject potentially lethal synthetic drugs into domestic circulation in Kerala.

Instead, he alleged that the government relied on propaganda and publicity campaigns to create an impression that law enforcement was serious about saving the people from the synthetic drug menace.

Mr Satheesan said law enforcers find it convenient to visit schools and colleges and make highfalutin speeches about the drug menace.