Lucknow is on a high

The drug scene is truly alive and kicking in the state capital. But if the Rs 10 crore drug haul barely 48 hours before the International Day Against Drug Abuse is not enough proof, consider these figures: Around 20 kilograms of smack makes its way to the city every day. Sixty per cent of the 40,000 drug addicts in Lucknow are youngsters and the number of patients admitted to the various drug rehabilitation centres of the city is increasing alarmingly. And more than 50 drug peddlers would be operating in the city even as you read this.
But there is little the state prohibition department can do to curb the menace. For the eight centres under Lucknow region (Lucknow, Sitapur, Hardoi, Shahjahanpur, Barabanki, Lakhimpur Kheri, Unnao and Rae Bareilly) the department''s annual budget is a measly Rs 2 lakh only. The budget of the district prohibition committee headed by the district magistrate is much less — Rs 1000 to be precise. Yessir, you have read it right — rupees one thousand is what the department gets annually to spearhead its campaign against drugs. And why is this amount so hopelessly less? Because, as investigations made by Lucknow Times revealed, the committee''s budget has not been revised for the past forty years!
For a city where an important accord was signed during an international meet on narcotics a couple of years back, these statistics are indeed damning. Organised by the United Nations Drug Control Programme and hosted by the Central Bureau of narcotics on behalf of the government of India, the meet was attended by delegates of 11 countries, including Iran, Jordon, Azerbaijan, Kazakhastan, Lebanon, UAE, Saudi Arabia and of course, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Amongst other things, the Lucknow accord had called for adoption of uniform means to control international trade of precursor and other chemicals used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and other psychotropic substances.
mazhar.farooqui@timesgroup.com