Banke, September 1

The number of drug abusers has increased in Banke district in the last few years, according to police.

District Police Office, Banke, stated that they reached this conclusion on the basis of the number of people arrested in connection with drug trafficking and abuse, the number of related cases registered in court and the volume of illegal drugs confiscated by police in the last few years.

As per the statistics of the last three years, there has been a steady rise in the number of drug users and traffickers in the district. Moreover, teenage girls are also found involved in substance abuse and its trafficking.

According to police, the prescription drugs are easily available in the Indian border town of Rupaidiha.

It is said that some of these teenage girls are even into prostitution. Teenage girls, who are involved in prostitution and drug trafficking, are mostly from Banke and neighboring districts. Most of them are Plus Two students.

Police stated that  11 teenage girls were arrested on the charge of drug peddling or abuse in the district in the fiscal 2017/18.

According to Inspector RanaBahadurBista, the number of drug abusers in the district has doubled in the last three years.

Police arrested 108 people on charges of drug abuse and trafficking in the fiscal 2015/16 and filed cases against 78 people. They confiscated 587.68 gram brown sugar, 30.2 kg hashish , 935 tablets of Nitrozepam, five kg opium and 15 kg marijuana in the fiscal 2015/16.

One hundred eighty-nine persons were arrested on charges of drug abuse and peddling in the fiscal 2016/17 and cases were filed against 189 of them. Police seized 537.312 gram brown sugar, 37 kg hashish, 10.53 kg opium, 5.2 litre Corex and 975 tablets of Nitrozepam during that period.

Similarly, police arrested 243 persons on charges of drug abuse and peddling, and filed cases against 147 of them  in the fiscal 2017/18.

Police confiscated 375.26 gram brown sugar, 86.25 kg hashish, 7.2 kg opium, 100 kg marijuana, 2,650 ml Corex, 3,926 tablets of Nitrozepam and Nitrovet and 69 tablets of Spam during this period.

Police stated that drug users and traffickers are attracted more towards prescription drugs because they do not cost much and are easily available. The drugs trafficked from here are supplied to Surkhet, Dang, Dailekh and even to Jumla. Youths from Jumla are also found actively involved in smuggling of illegal drugs from India.

Among the inmates in the District Prison, those convicted of drug trafficking and peddling outnumber convicts of other crimes.

Out of the 653 inmates in the district prison, 232 are the convicts of drug related offences, according to acting chief of the prison Shyam Lamichhane.