Gateway Drugs, Drug Abuse and Lacuna in Indian Laws

Introduction:

Gateway Drugs are such kind of drugs that are legal and can influence non-drug users to use hard drugs which are comparatively more hazardous. Alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana are the most common example of Gateway Drugs. As the name suggests, they act as a gateway to the use of hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. According to Gateway Drugs Theory, these drugs create a psychological dependence which needs more drug every time to gain the same kind of result, that is why people tend to shift towards other drugs preferably strong and hard drugs to gain the same high.

With the legalization of gateway drugs like alcohol in most of the states of India, we can see that crimes such as domestic violence are also increasing. Abuse of gateway drugs also promotes an individual to shift towards other drugs which are illegal in the country and crimes like illegal drug trafficking also increases.

Gateway Drug Theory

Gateway drug theory, also known as stepping-stone theory, escalation or progression hypothesis, is a hypothesis that says that the use of one drug subsequently leads a person to abuse other more harmful drugs. In short, it makes the individuals more vulnerable to abusing other drugs. According to the animal model of addiction, abuse of certain drugs at an early age leads animals to become more at risk to abuse other drugs at a later age.

However, the common liability model seeks to differ from this theory. Gateway theory talks about a particular relationship between the abuse of one substance to the future abuse of another substance, on the other side, common liability theory proposes that people who abuse any drug are more vulnerable to develop various mental health issues including abuse of other drugs in future.

Drugs & Crime: Trends

There is an obvious relationship between drugs and crime. For instance, according to a report, in the USA, more than 60% of arrested people for various kinds of crime test positive for substance abuse at the time of their arrest.[1] Drugs can influence a person to commit a crime both directly and indirectly. Under the direct influence, people commit crimes to fund drug abuse or commit other crimes under the direct influence of drugs. Most of the time such crimes are property-related offenses. Whereas indirect influence of drugs includes living a lifestyle that includes various kinds of illegal works. Most of the drug users commit crimes in order to support the habit of taking drugs. According to psychopharmacological effects, the use of drugs influences the criminal behavior of a person. The degree of addiction also influences the intensity of crimes.

Laws Relating to Drug Abuse in India

In order to control drug abuse in India the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930 was enacted. Later, in 1940, in order to control the manufacturing and sale of drugs with medicinal values Drugs and Cosmetic Act was enacted. However, after the adoption of the Constitution of India, the drug laws took a completely new face as even under article 47 drug policies are justified. The subject of “Drugs and Poison” comes under the concurrent list of the Constitution which means that both center and state government are authorized to make laws on it.

India is a part of various conventions such as the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, and the Convention against illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances of 1988, therefore, the Indian government passed Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. This act prohibits production, sale, purchase, or consumption of Psychotropic Substances except for medical purposes.

Although the act seems to be a step in the right direction, it suffers from several legislative deficiencies such as:

• Section 35 of the act presumes the guilt of the accused and puts the onus of proving his innocence on the person accused which is against the principles of Natural Justice which is the pillar of the Indian Justice System.
• According to section 2(iii), Bhaang is not considered as a narcotic or psychotropic substance.
• It is highly punitive in nature and fails to understand the underlying cause of crime. It presses more on incarceration.
• According to sections 31A and 27, there is stringent punishment of the death penalty for repeat offenders.
• It does not make any significant distinction between hard drugs and soft drugs, which is why most of the illegal drug abusers shift towards hard drugs.
• It has weak bail provisions which help rich people to get bail but keeps poor people in Jails.
• Enforcement agencies have failed to abide by section 50 of the act which gives the accused a right to be searched in the presence of a gazetted officer.
• It does not provide a distinction between an addict, petty offender, and drug trafficker. It does not differentiate between different offenses, and all the offenses have been declared as illicit trafficking.
• It does not understand the notion of addiction and reprieve them with lifetime compulsory treatment. It does not take into account the mental health of the person consuming drugs very seriously.
• Under sections 71 and 78, the act laws down the procedure and conditions in which psychotropic substances would be supplied for medical use to addicts. But till now, no such mechanism has been implemented at district and state levels.

In India, Many users of drugs have shifted towards extremely dangerous drugs, as already explained, this shift is known as the gateway drug effect. Factually speaking, one kilo of heroin is equal to 10 kgs of Opium. Ganga smells a lot and is also bulky as compared with heroin. It is easy to transport and hide heroin and it is highly profitable so giving bribes to authorities also becomes easy. Also, if one has to go to jail for 10 years for both opium and heroin, why not sell heroin instead of soft drugs like opium? From this example, it is very evident and clear that this law is extremely harsh and can be easily misused.

Global Scenario

Across the globe, most of the countries such as Australia support the philosophy of harm reductionwhich looks for reducing harmful health, social and economic consequences of drug abuse. In such countries, the personal use of various drugs has been made a criminal offense. India also follows the same kind of philosophy. Such policies do not necessarily focus on decreasing the consumption of drugs.

In countries like Portugal and Switzerland, the main objective of drug policies is to reduce the use of drugs among its people and also reducing the harmful social and personal consequences. However, there are some differences between the strategies of these two countries. In Switzerland, possession and consumption of drugs has been made a criminal offense whereas Portugal has decriminalized drug use and possession.

Conclusion

In order to prevent drug abuse and also to prevent gateway drug effect following steps are very crucial and should be implemented:

• There is a need to tone down the technicalities in the language of the act.
• There is a need to reclassify the psychopathic substances mentioned under the act because currently, there is a misuse of medicinal drugs.
• The act currently presses more on incarceration, there is a need to adopt more rehabilitative approaches towards the consumption of drugs. Such an approach has already been proved effective in European Union.
• There is a need to adopt more evidence-based harm reduction approaches along with counseling as an alternative to incarceration. The mental health of the accused should also be considered.
• There is a need to protect the identity of the accused in order to avoid stigmatization as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• Bail provisions should also be amended so that they can cater to poor people as well.

To reduce drug-related crimes, there is a strong need to understand the link between crime and the dependency of individuals. Strategies should include measures by keeping in mind the underlying cause of crime instead of imprisonment.

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References:

[1] Prevention of Drug-Related Crime Report, International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (June 2015).

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