Nagaland DGP Rupin Sharma seeks community help to fight drug menace

KOHIMA — Nagaland Director General of Police (DGP), Rupin Sharma on Friday launched a project on “Reducing drug use among children and adolescents – a drug free North East” at Crescent International Hotel, Kohima.

The project is an initiative of the Nagaland Catholic Youth Movement (NCYM) in collaboration with the North Eastern Regional Youth Commission (NERYC) and Indian Catholic Youth Movement North East.

Speaking on the occasion, Sharma stressed on the need to address the drug menace in society, saying that everybody needs to wake up and spread the message because drug users are everywhere.

Maintaining that police cannot catch all drug peddlers and traffickers, he appealed to the citizens to have mutual trust and provide information to the police, assuring that the identity of the informant will be kept confidential and ‘the victims will not be touched by the police’ as long as they are in rehabilitation centres.

The police will be able to block the channels of drugs if the public shares information, he added.

‘The ethics and moralities of the drug traffickers are very low as it is business for them,’ he said while calling upon the faith-based organisations to work towards addressing it.

President of ICYM, NE, Magdalene Anal said that the project targets three north-eastern states of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh, and the duration is for 24 months — from April 2023 to March 2023. 

To reduce illicit drug use, she said, the NERYC is taking preventive measures like ground inspections, parenting counselling, constant checking, and extensive awareness programmes.

At the curative level, the drug users will be referred to rehab centres, and provide counseling, medication and physical activities. The next stage comes aftercare where the victims will be trained with vocational skills and employment opportunities, it was informed.

Rev. Dr. James Thoppil, Bishop of Kohima, also spoke at the event.

Also read: Drug-related cases ultimately lead to women — DGP Rupin Sharma