Assam drug market: On stream since 2011

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 16: Assam, especially Guwahati as a market for rcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, has been very much on stream since 2011. The number of cases under NDPS Act keeps in rising in the State.

According to official sources, traditiol contrabands like ganja, cough syrup etc. and synthetic drugs containing methamphetamine are being supplied to Assam constantly from areas bordering Myanmar. Methamphetamine is used for manufacturing different types of drugs. Drugs also come to the state from States as far as Punjab, Harya and Maharashtra, mostly from Punjab, the sources added.

According to the sources, in Assam only 121 cases under NDPS Act were registered in 2006 that rose to over 200 cases in 2011 and 251 in 2013. The number of such cases, according to the sources, fell in 2014 and 2015 only to start rising afresh from 2016. As many as NDPS 386 cases were registered in the State in 2017, the sources said.

The smuggling of foreign cigarettes is also a happening in Assam. Most of the foreign cigarettes seized in the State are from Korea. Since 2017 foreign cigarettes worth crores of rupees were seized in the State, the sources, and added that foreign cigarettes are sold at very high prices in Assam.  

Ephedrine and Pseudoephedrine tablets are smuggled to Manipur via Assam from Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and a few other places, the sources said. From Manipur the substances, the sources said, go to Myanmar for use in manufacture of drugs of diverse hues. Liquid heroin, according to sources, come to Assam and Aruchal Pradesh from the bordering areas of Chi.