From Addiction to Action: Building a Nasha-Mukt Jammu & Kashmir

Credit By: DR SIDDHARTHA GHOSH

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28 Apr 2026

Delivering a knockout punch to the entire drug peddling network and making the UT of Jammu & Kashmir truly nasha-mukt

On 11^th April 2026, LG Manoj Sinha launched a historic mass movement intending to crackdown on the Drug network and cartels active in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir. The campaign, named “Nasha Mukt Jammu & Kashmir Abhiyan”, denotes a shift from merely an awareness drive to a well-formed administrative war having a multipronged approach of targeting the financial, legal and operational epicentre of the narcotics network.

The key measures which were made part of this campaign include the provision of cancellation of key identity documents such as Aadhaar, passport and driving license; confiscation of property under the NDPS act, strict financial surveillance with a provision of freezing of accounts of suspects or accomplices, public identification of drug peddlers, and issuance of lookout circulars against absconders. While the move is not just a necessary and bold step for countering the drug menace, it also delivers a strong psychological and operational blow to the drug peddling network.

While the move is a much-welcome one, there are a few concerns which also linger, albeit the solution to those can also be swift, and it just needs administrative determination. Since the crackdown will certainly disrupt the drug network, it’s expected that in the coming months, there will be a surge of addicts looking for rehabilitation. The UT of Jammu & Kashmir lacks de-addiction centres, trained counsellors and affordable access to treatment.

A social stigma also prevents the patients and their families from turning up for initial treatment. A mass campaign sensitising the public may be immediately helpful in this regard. Apart from treatment, there is also a chance that addicts may resort to crime or synthetic substitutes for their drug craving, and hence, strict and swift attention is required on this dimension of the UT’s war on drugs.

The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985 has an immensely poor rate of conviction in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. So much so that out of 13,000 arrests made from 2019 to 2024, only 4 convictions were made. Weak investigation coupled with poor prosecution, lack of forensic fact-finding and absence of accountability are the key reasons behind this. This also creates the possibilities of repeat offenders returning to their drug syndicate and rarely serves as any form of deterrence for the drug peddlers.

Many of the previously detained individuals under preventive laws like the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act (PSA) 1978 are back to crime, acting as drug channels in the UT. Their drug channels are mainly in the form of a courier network active on the taxi routes of Jammu. They also have a cross-district supply chain in the form of medicine distributions. Their targets are generally schools and universities, coaching centres, playgrounds, game centres like those of snooker and even graveyards.

As it is evident that a wide scope of enforcement corrections remains in the administration, including a scope of re-detention of repeat offenders (a tactic which bore fruit in the ongoing elections in West Bengal), fast tracking of NDPS cases through special courts, introduction of body cams for field investigation officers for enhanced transparency, weekly review meetings at district level involving police, civil administration and intelligence unites.

At the distribution level of narcotics, the scanning of courier channels needs to be done on a proactive basis, coupled with tight monitoring of inter-district transport, strengthening of checkpoints with intelligence integration (something similar is seen in the state of Bihar for liquor prevention), and zero-tolerance policing involving immediate preventive detention of key operatives arrested red-handed in supplying, distribution or even facilitation of drug peddling.

The rehabilitation of addicts needs expansion of de-addiction centres, making counselling both affordable and accessible. The administration can also train religious leaders, community leaders and teachers as a first line of defense with the help of whom, drug awareness camps can be organised at school and university levels. The officers active in the field must be motivated, held accountable and emotionally aligned with this mission. The weight of the history of this campaign, being a once-in-a-generation responsibility, needs to be communicated well at the administrative level.

This crackdown has started the war, but like any war, the outcome will depend solely on coordination. A hand enforcement along with speedy rehabilitation will ensure that neither drugs nor drug addicts remain on the ground, delivering a knockout punch to the entire drug peddling network and making the UT of Jammu & Kashmir truly nasha-mukt. This campaign, under the leadership of LG Shri Manoj Sinha, will surely be remembered as the inflexion point from where the youth of J&K were brought to the mainstream of the region’s holistic development.

(The Author is Director, Red Lantern Analytica)