SC adds teeth to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act

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  SC adds teeth to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act

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1. In an important verdict, the SC held that it is the quantity of the entire banned drug mixture and not its purity which will determine the punishment for an offender under the legislation.
2. The amount of neutral substance in a mixture has to be included along with the actual weight of the banned substances for determining whether it is a "small or commercial quantity" under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
3. The use of drugs by young people in India has increased over a period of time, which is a crime against the society and has to be dealt with iron hands.
4. A 3-judge bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Indira Banerjee and M R Shah said that the two bench verdict of 2008 in the case of E Micheal Raj was "not a good law" for holding that in a mixture of narcotic drugs, only the weight of the banned substance is relevant for the purpose of determining whether it would constitute "small quantity or commercial quantity".
5. Under the provision of NDPS Act, the punishment for possessing commercial quantity of the banned substance is higher than the smaller quantity.
6. Illicit street drugs are seldom sold in a pure form and they are almost always adulterated or mixed with other substance -- like caffeine is mixed with heroin so that it causes the heroin to vaporize at a lower rate.
7. That could allow users to take the drug faster and get a big punch sooner.
8. The problem of drug addicts is international and the mafia is working throughout the world.
9. The court rejected the challenge made by several petitioners to November 18, 2009, notification of Central government by which it had said that while determining the small or commercial quantity of narcotic drugs in a mixture with one or more neutral substance(s), the weight of neutral substance (s) are also to be included with the actual content of the offending drug.
10. The bench said the 2009 notification is not ultra vires to the Scheme and the relevant provisions of the NDPS Act and dismissed a batch of petitions which challenged the notification terming it as arbitrary and void.
11. To view the comple Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985 visit here – 

https://dor.gov.in/sites/default/files/Narcotic-Drugs-and-Psychotropic-Substances-Act-1985.pdf

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