Captain: High heroin price proof of success against drug menace

Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, in response to a question during the press interaction on Thursday, he lambasted leader of opposition and AAP MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira over “his attempts to secure political and personal gains by raising the bogey of drugs”. “My government is eliminating the drug menace and the smugglers are under pressure,” he claimed. He also said he would ensure a probe into an allegation made by former cabinet minister Rana Gurjit Singh about an addict being pushed into drugs by a cop.

“The price of heroin has shot through the roof, further endorsing the success of the government’s anti-drugs campaign,” he said. “With heroin and chitta (‘white’ powder narcotics) scarce in the market, drug addicts are now resorting to consumption of other mixtures, and even reportedly using anti-addiction drugs intravenously, to satisfy their cravings,” he further said, citing information received from ”various sources”.

Around 10,000 peddlers are in jail, said the CM, adding that one of the kingpins is lodged in a Hong Kong prison and efforts are on to secure his extradition. The government has information about

three major drug suppliers having fled India, he disclosed. Later in the day, a state government spokesperson clarified that the total drug peddlers arrested and jailed since the Amarinder government took over in March 2017 is 18,800. The spokesperson said that in an earlier statement, made during a live TV interview, the CM cited “50,000 plus” as the total number but “inadvertently failed to specify it was the total number of peddlers arrested over the past five years”.