Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh wrote to Rajnath Singh Wednesday, recommending death penalty for first-time drug peddlers in Punjab. The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by the CM Monday.
Experts, however, insist on the need to first differentiate between a drug user and a professional drug dealer.
ThePrint asks: Can death penalty for drug dealers solve the addiction problem in Punjab or is it just politics?
A drug dealer is selling death, deserves to be hanged more than anyone else
cabinet minister and Congress MLA
Crime remains under control not because there are no criminals but because criminals fear the law. It is this fear which needs to be instilled among those who are indulging in drug dealing.
The NDPS Act is a strict act but, for years, has made a limited impact on being a deterrent.
Drug smuggling is still flourishing. Legislation cannot put an end to all crimes, but strengthening the law and giving it more teeth surely makes a difference. That is what the Punjab CM intended to do.
A drug dealer is not just a petty criminal. He is selling death. He is murdering thousands. He deserves to be hanged more than anyone else. And, he is not just killing one person, but destroying a family and an entire community. The strongest of punishments should be reserved for a person like that.
Countless youth are buying drugs from peddlers on the streets. It is something that is happening not just in Punjab or the metros in India, but in the biggest cities of the world.
Singapore, a small city nation, has set an example for the world. Earlier, on an average, a dozen people were executed for drug-related crimes. Over the years, the number of executions has come down to one or two. The effect of the punishment is chilling.
There is no doubt that the police force in Punjab has to measure up to the legislation. And, it is happening. In the last few days, several cops involved with drug dealers have lost their jobs. There is no laxity there. The police now know that they will not be spared for this. The message to them is clear: if you are working with drug dealers, you will be thrown out.
Punjab govt’s crackdown on police to check collusion with drug dealers is appreciable
AAP MLA from Punjab and senior advocate
The NDPS Act already provides for death sentence for second-time offenders. My question is how many of those convicted under the Act have been given death penalty till now? Punjab government seeking an amendment to the NDPS Act to prescribe death sentence to first-time offenders is mere optics, and will have no impact on resolving the problem of drug addiction.
The state government’s effort is rather an attempt to shift the responsibility of sorting out its own problem to the Centre.
What, however, is appreciable is the manner in which the Punjab government has cracked down on its own police to remove the black sheep. All acts and laws, even the strongest and harshest of them, will fail if the agency implementing it is mixed up with criminals. That is what has been happening in Punjab.
Now, police officers colluding with with the drug dealers are being thrown out and that in my opinion is the first step in the right direction. I only hope though that this momentum of action be maintained.
Third, the government’s effort to involve the community through drug abuse prevention officers (DAPOs) is half-hearted. It is a good concept – to ask for voluntary association of government employees to intervene at the household level to counsel a drug addict and his family and encourage treatment – but not rolled out properly. DAPOs have been registered but not trained. They don’t know what to do next. In my constituency (Dakha, Ludhiana) I have decided to get DAPOs trained and also involved the local youth in identifying addicts and start their counselling. This needs to start everywhere across the state.
Death sentence will reflect state’s will to combat the crime
Senior advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court
I do not subscribe to the dominant liberal view, currently fashionable, that death sentence can never be a deterrent. Terrorism, rape and drugs are three areas where death sentence would reflect the state’s policy and the will to combat the crime in question and also deter potential criminals.
However, one cannot prescribe death sentence for every other offence and this ultimate punishment has to be reserved for the most egregious crimes. That apart, the death sentence cannot be the sole or exclusive punishment for any offence, regardless of the nature or magnitude of the offence, as has been held by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court way back in 1983 in Mithu Singh’s case.
Under the Constitution, therefore, the death sentence can at the very best be an alternative statutory punishment in the rarest of rare cases, provided life imprisonment or such grave punishment is also listed as an alternative.
But even where the death sentence is constitutionally permissible and prescribed by law, the battle against drugs cannot take off unless and until the state police is sanitised and transformed into a force capable of fighting the problem.
Police patronage of drug dealers or complicity with them is now turning out to be a major part of the drug problem in Punjab. No amount of legal or institutional reform will resolve the problem if immediate corrective and deterrent measures are not undertaken to weed out police officials at all levels, who are in collusion with drug dealers. The nexus between the police force and drug criminals must be broken as a necessary first step towards the fight against drugs.
Drug addiction should be treated as moral problem, incarceration alone can’t solve it
Social activist
When Captain Amarinder Singh was re-appointed as the Punjab Congress chief, he vowed by the Gutka (a holy Sikh book) in Talwandi Sabo that if he takes office, he will wipe out drugs from the state in 30 days. Sadly, he slept over the issue and did little to curb the menace and now this has come back to haunt him.
He has recommended to the central government death penalty for drug traffickers. But is this the right solution? Section 31A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act already provides for death penalty for second-time offenders, but the chief minister has demanded death penalty in the first instance of conviction. He has also ordered mandatory dope test for all the government employees. These steps alone won’t block the drug supply in the state.
The government must invest in compulsory rehabilitation as hundreds of Punjabis fail to receive proper treatment at a facility. The dreadful conditions at these rehabilitation centres across the state should also be improved.
There is a pressing need for carrying out sensitisation programmes on drugs abuse and prevention in schools and colleges. The government should also launch adequate employment and skill development schemes to take the youth out of oblivion.
Portugal’s radical drugs policy should be a lesson for Punjab. Ever since the country decriminalised all drugs in 2001, Portugal has witnessed huge drop in drug overdose cases and drug-related crimes. We must treat drug addiction as a moral problem and solve it through adequate support services, rather than just through incarceration.
Police must differentiate between a drug user-turned-peddler and a drug dealer
Technical expert UNODC and master trainer for Punjab government psychiatrists
Capital punishment for drug dealers is aimed at enhancing the fear among the offenders against the crime. A stricter punishment for drug smugglers is needed. It may not solve the problem of drug addiction in Punjab, but may lead to some drug dealers to realise that what they are doing is not worth risking their life for.
But having said that, I would like to add a precautionary footnote: The drug user is not a criminal. He is a patient. And in no way should a stricter punishment for drug dealers translate into picking up drug addicts and putting them behind bars. We see scores of cases where drug addicts have turned couriers and then peddlers to earn money to feed their habit. It is not uncommon. But these people are to be treated as victims.
Since the first point of contact between a drug addict and law is through the police, there is an urgent need to sensitise policemen so that they can identify and differentiate between a drug user-turned-peddler and drug dealers, who are professional criminals. We have proposed to the Punjab government that sensitisation workshops for policemen be held regularly.
The community also needs to start intervening actively. After the recent spate of deaths in the state, youth in villages and small towns are convincing drug addicts to come out for treatment. The police are also encouraging the community to give them information about who is peddling drugs. I hope this momentum continues.
Several first-time offenders are minors, death penalty is no way to punish them
Journalist, ThePrint
If death penalty was a solution to all the crimes, Saudi Arabia will be the most peaceful country in the world.
Captain Amarinder Singh’s decision to recommend death penalty to first-time drug offenders in Punjab is an emotional step, not a rational one. I can’t recall any precedent in India where death penalty led to a dip in crime rate.
Instead of putting the noose around first-time offenders, government can use them to catch those involved in large-scale distribution of drugs. It should also increase the reward for exposing a drug peddler, and offer protection to those providing such information.
Drugs are freely available in Punjab, and punishing people alone cannot stop the demand-supply chain. Schools need to monitored, and parents need to be mentored. Officers colluding with drug peddlers need to be weeded out.
Also, death penalty for first-time offenders is too harsh a punishment, given the fact that many of them are minors and perhaps don’t even realise the implications of their actions. Yes, repeat offenders must be punished, but even then death penalty isn’t the way to deal with them.
The drug problem did not spread overnight in Punjab.
Unemployment, lack of quality education, and the glorification of drugs by the Punjab entertainment industry are all responsible for the present situation in the state.
Unless the government starts thinking about providing better education and employment opportunities to the youth, Punjab’s drug problem is here to stay.
Compiled by Chitleen K. Sethi, associate editor at ThePrint.