Does UNODC plan to bring in tighter controls?
India is a signatory to all the international conventions on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and has been active in the international and regional fora on this issue for many years. The amendments to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act had already brought about significant flexibility in the penal structure of the country. Afghanistan had a bumper opium crop in 2006. How much of it is going to be trafficked to India or via India? The greatest numbers of opiate abusers are found along the main drug trafficking routes emanating from the Golden Crescent and Triangle. India, being in the proximity of the two regions, has to be apprehensive about the drug production and trafficking, from these areas. Opium poppy cultivation in the Golden Triangle (Laos, Myanmar and Thailand), fell 29 per cent in 2006, bringing the total decline in the region since 1998 to 85 percent. There has been an alarming rise in the opium poppy cultivation and in the illegal manufactu
