New Delhi: Just three years after Bollywood was called Nashedi gang and Rhea Chakraborty and Deepika Padukone were vilified, scholars, doctors and psychiatrists, gathered at Delhi’s India Habitat Center to discuss the problem of addiction. And their solution? Not the Narcotics Control Bureau’s aggressive force and not bans either.
At the talk about psychiatrist Dr. Anirudh Kala’s latest book Most of What You Know About Addiction is Wrong, the panellists advocated for the legalisation of drugs in the country.
Given the polarised and complicated views on drugs in the nation, the subject received a mixed response. In a society where drug addicts are popularly labelled as ‘criminals’, most attendees had not expected the discussion to steer this way. The audience, which included people looking for solutions to their own or a loved one’s addiction issues, had assembled in anticipation of receiving answers or advice on the question of “how to deal with addiction”.
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Destigmatising drug use
Renunciation and abhorrence of drugs are dominant, even when the country’s culture has, for a long time, accepted drug consumption. A pertinent example is the use of bhang by Shaivite Hindus, said psychiatrist Dr Atul Ambekar who was on the panel.
“Human beings have this tendency, need actually, to periodically feel different; whether they use drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, hard music, mysticism, or meditation. To feel different is very much a need for human beings, just like eating, sleeping and sex,” said Dr Kala.
Dr Kala said the stigmatisation of addicts started with banning drug use. “Whenever you ban something, smugglers come in, and they will not give something mild and bulky. They will give you something strong and compact. The same thing happened here, smugglers did not bother about opium, poppy husk or weed, they brought in heroin. The intoxicants became stronger and much more harmful,” he said.
Dr Ambekar reiterated that cannabis has been part and parcel of India’s cultural history. The very nomenclature of ‘Cannabis Indica’ tells of its centuries-old Indic associations, he said.
Dr Ambekar believes that British colonisation caused a disruption in our relationship with psychoactive substances. “If all of us had continued drinking bhang and thandai, who would have drank scotch?”
Demonising and vilifying our patterns of substance use, the Britishers instead promoted what they had bottled and were selling. Indian society internalised this distinction. Dr Ambekar turns to the movies for an example. “All of us have seen Don, I suppose. There are two Amitabh Bachchans [in it]. The one who is more sophisticated and westernised consumes alcohol. It is the “chhora Ganga kinare waala” (one rooted in Indian culture) who enjoys bhang,” he said.
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The legalisation debate
Calls for the legalisation and decriminalisation of drugs invoked charged responses. Psychiatrist Dr Alok Sarin called this ‘solution’ “complex and layered”. He stressed that looking at them simplistically is where the problem lies.
The role of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985 was the most crucial and passionate part of the discussion.
Ambekar emphasised the negative repercussions of the NDPS Act’s outright prohibition of narcotics. The statute classifies all psychoactive drugs under a single category, motivating dealers and smugglers to switch to heroin — the risk is the same but the earnings are higher.
“The current healthcare system does not offer substantial treatment options to people affected by addiction,” Kala told ThePrint. He pointed out that “the same law, NDPS, which is used to catch smugglers, is also used to dispense treatment”. The government oversees the administration of medicines, leaving very little scope for the say of experts.
Dr Kala said that the legalisation of the recreational use of marijuana and similar lower-schedule drugs is a pressing matter. It becomes more vital in the wake of increasing arrests of drug users made by authorities. He claimed that in Bombay in 2021, 93 per cent of drug-related arrests were of small users and peddlers. “We should decriminalise using and small-time peddling. Secondly, legalise the safer intoxicants, like weed and poppy husk,” said Dr Kala.
An audience member passionately challenged the stance stating that there are many peddlers who are consumers themselves, and sell in order to be able to consume drugs themselves. “What is their future,” he asked. Other audience members lamented that the increased availability of drugs would contribute to a rise in addiction as well.
Defending his stance, Dr Kala said that availability has very little to do with consumption, giving examples of alcohol and tobacco. “Banning only delegates the responsibility [of distribution] to the black market,” he said. This leads to adulterated drugs reaching consumers. The panellists were of the opinion that legalisation would check the availability of such drugs in the market.
“Rest of the world is coming to its senses, 37 states of the USA have legalised weed, which is several times safer than alcohol. It is not that it is harmless, nothing is harmless. It is the question of which is less harmful,” said Dr Kala.
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Treating addiction
But legalisation is not something that can wipe away addiction. “This [addiction] is not something that you can wipe out with a magic pill, magic bullet or magic law’, said Dr Sarin.
Even current addiction therapies involve the administration of weak opioids to reduce dependency. Abolition is a romantic notion, regulated intake is key, said Dr Kala.
He added that addiction is a chronic illness like hypertension. This means that it is imperative to divest the disease from any moral, or political overtones. Dr Sarin provides another analogy, that of anxiety. “You can never cure anxiety. It’s not happening. It can only be managed through medication, behavioural treatment, cognitive therapies,” he said.
Change in popular perception towards addicts is the need of the hour. “The first thing is not to stigmatise it [addiction]. Don’t pick a moralistic stand. We don’t do it to the people who drink,” said Dr Kala.
When asked if addiction will ever disappear, Dr Sarin said that it is like Covid-19, “It’s here to stay.”
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)