Navjot backs demand to legalise opium sale

CHANDIGARH: Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has supported an AAP leader in his demand to legalise the sale and cultivation of opium in the state. The suspended Member of Parliament from Patiala, AAP's Dharamvir Gandhi, a doctor, has been pitching for legalisation of poppy and opium cultivation.

"Dharamvir Gandhi is doing a very good thing, I support him," Mr Sidhu told news agency ANI and added that that his uncle "took opium and lived a long life". "My uncle used to get opium as medicine from hospital. He lived a long life," he said.

Daljit Singh Cheema of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) used Navjot Singh Sidhu's statement to attack the Congress government in the state. This is the first official admission of the cabinet minister that the state government cannot solve the problem of drugs in the state, Cheema said. "They had promised they will finish the problem of drugs in four weeks of coming to power. They have admitted that they failed to control the drug problem even after two years. Now they are floating the new theory to divert public attention," Cheema said.

Meanwhile, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh supported his minister and called for a national drug policy to save the young generation.

The national policy could also address the need for cultivation of drugs needed for the pharmaceutical industry, he said, adding that centre should involve states and experts while formulating such a policy. He stressed that he had been clamouring for such a policy since his previous tenure as CM way back in 2007.