BUSSINESS STATISTICS

SERIOUSNESS OF DRUGS IN INDIA

A STATISTICAL VIEW

Submitted by

Barkha Shravani Sahu, Gauravjeet Sokhi, Sagar Kamrani

(Division – D, PRN – 16010324313,16010324324,16010324361),
(BBA LLB, Semester III, Batch 2016-21)

Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

Symbiosis International University, Pune

In

August 2017

Under the guidance of

Prof. Amit Hedau

Assistant Professor

Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad

 CERTIFICATE

The project titled “SERIOUSNESS OF DRUGS IN INDIA A STATISTICAL

VIEW” submitted to Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad for BUSSINESS
STATISTICS as part of Internal Assessment is based on my original work
carried out under the guidance of Professor Amit Hedau in August 2017. The
research work has not been submitted elsewhere for award of any degree.

The material borrowed from other sources and incorporated in the thesis has
been duly acknowledged.

Signature of Students

Barkha Shravani

Gauravjeet Sokhi

Sagar Kamrani
Date: 26/08/2017
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Before we get into thick of things, I would like to add a few words of
appreciation for the people who have been a part of this project right from its
inception. The writing of this project has been one of the significant academic
challenges I have faced and without the support, patience and guidance of the
people involved, this task would not have been completed. It is to them I owe
my deepest gratitude.

It gives me immense pleasure in presenting this project report on CRIME

RELATED TO DRUGS A STATISTICAL VIEW”. The success of this project is a
result of sheer hard work, and determination put in by me with the help of my
project guide. I hereby take this opportunity to add a special note of thanks for
my Family law teacher Mr. Amit Hedau, who undertook to act as my mentor
despite their many other academic and professional commitments. Their
wisdom, knowledge, and commitment to the highest standards inspired and
motivated me. Without their insight, support and energy, this project wouldn’t
have kickstarted and neither would have reached fruitfulness.

I also feel heartiest sense of obligation to my library sir & ma’am, and other
staff members, who helped me in collection of data and resource material and
also in its processing as well as in drafting manuscript. The project is detailed to
all those people, who helped me while doing this project

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE NUMBER
SERIAL NUMBER TOPIC NAME

1. INTRODUCTION 5-6

OBJECTIVES 7
2.

RESEARCH 9
3. METHODOLOGY

4.
DATA ANALYSIS 10-19

CONCLUSION 20
5.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 21

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 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
The main idea behind the project was to understand how statistical pertaining to the
drug crimes in India to determine their growth and gauge the serious. The main
objectives behind the formation of the project are as follows:

1. To gain familiarity with the data which shows seriousness of India’s drug problem
2. To understand, observer and tabulate drug problem in few states
3. To learn how statistical data can be interpreted and how statistical formulae can be
applied in order to gauge the problem and growth of the drug problem in India

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

For the said project a number of sources were referred to in order to obtain a holistic and
comprehensive study about the Drug abuse in India.

Sources of data:-Data has been collected with the help of primary sources i.e. by going
through different materials and modems and thereby jotting down our own analysis and
statistical methods for data calculation. Through research methodology by primary sources it
has benefitted by improving our concept and mathematical approach towards data analysis.
Secondary sources of data such books, journals, internet websites have also been referred to
help develop a logical approach and a systematic presentation of the same.

Analysis of data:-

After referring to the aforementioned sources of data an understanding has been done based
on which analysis have been drawn by using graphs to showcase accurate and first-hand
information. The graphs have been explained and concluded duly to carry out a systematic
study and statistical analysis of the same..

INTRODUCTION

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India had no legislation regarding narcotics until 1985. Cannabis smoking in India has been
known since at least 2000 BC and is first mentioned in the Atharvaveda, which dates back a
few hundred years BC. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, an Indo-British study of
cannabis usage in India appointed in 1893, found that the "moderate" use of hemp drugs was
"practically attended by no evil results at all", "produces no injurious effects on the mind"
and "no moral injury whatever". Regarding "excessive" use of the drug, the Commission
concluded that it "may certainly be accepted as very injurious, though it must be admitted
that in many excessive consumers the injury is not clearly marked". The report the
Commission produced was at least 3,281 pages long, with testimony from almost 1,200
"doctors, coolies, yogis, fakirs, heads of lunatic asylums, bhang peasants, tax gatherers,
smugglers, army officers, hemp dealers, ganja palace operators and the clergy."

Cannabis and its derivatives (marijuana, hashish/charas and bhang) were legally sold in India
until 1985, and their recreational use was commonplace. Consumption of cannabis was not
seen as socially deviant behaviour, and was viewed as being similar to the consumption of
alcohol. Ganja and charas were considered by upper class Indians as the poor man's
intoxicant, although the rich consumed bhang during Holi. The United States began to
campaign for a worldwide law against all drugs, following the adoption of the Single
Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961. However, India opposed the move, and withstood
American pressure to make cannabis illegal for nearly 25 years. American pressure increased
in the 1980s, and in 1985, the Rajiv Gandhi government succumbed and enacted the NDPS
Act, banning all narcotic drugs in India.

The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, commonly referred to as the
NDPS Act, is an Act of the Parliament of India that prohibits a person to
produce/manufacture/cultivate, possess, sell, purchase, transport, store, and/or consume any
narcotic drug or psychotropic substance.

The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Bill, 1985 was introduced in the Lok Sabha
on 23 August 1985. It was passed by both the Houses of Parliament, received assent from
then President Giani Zail Singh on 16 September 1985, and came into force on 14 November

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1985. The NDPS Act has since been amended thrice - in 1988, 2001 and 2014. The Act
extends to the whole of India and it applies also to all Indian citizens outside India and to all
persons on ships and aircraft registered in India.

Under one of the provisions of the act, the Narcotics Control Bureau was set up with effect
from March 1986. The Act is designed to fulfil India's treaty obligations under the Single
Convention on Narcotic Drugs, Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and United Nations
Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

During the discussion of the Bill in Parliament, several members opposed it for treating hard
and soft drugs as the same. However, the Rajiv Gandhi administration claimed that soft drugs
were gateway drugs.

The NDPS Act was criticized in The Times of India. The paper described the law as "ill-
conceived" and "poorly thought-out" due to the law providing the same punishment for all
drugs, which meant that dealers shifted their focus to harder drugs, where profits are far
higher. The paper also argued that the Act had "actually created a drugs problem where there
was none." The Times of India recommended that some of the softer drugs should be
legalized, as this might reduce the level of heroin addiction.

In 2015, Lok Sabha MP Tathagata Satpathy criticized the ban on cannabis as "elitist", and
labeling cannabis the "intoxicant" of the poor. He also felt that the ban was "an overreaction
to a scare created by the United States". Sathpathy has also advocated the legalisation of
cannabis. On 2 November 2015, Lok Sabha MP Dharamvir Gandhi announced that had
received clearance from Parliament to table a Private Member's Bill seeking to amend the
NDPS Act to allow for the legalised, regulated, and medically supervised supply of "non-
synthetic" intoxicants including cannabis and opium.

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 DATA ANALYSIS

This project aims to highlight the growth and graphical analysis Seriousness of drug related
crime in India. Following are the well-known ones: -

There are two important definitions which are required to be known in order to understand
the data being presented here.

Mean- Mean, also referred to, as Average is used to derive the central tendency of the data
set which is being referred. It is derived by adding all the values of the data belonging to the
same category and then dividing it with the number of values that there are in the given data
set.

Mode: Mode in simple terms is the maximum value of the frequency or the given data of a
category in a given data set. Mathematically speaking it is the maximum probability of
selecting a given value of the frequency in a given data set randomly is the mode of the given
data set.

Growth Rate- Growth rate typically represents the annual growth in the dependency of
drugs, crime related to it etc. It also enables a person to determine the level at which a
dependency and crimes are growing .

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India's Drug Problem: Eye-Opening Facts
Here's decoding the data from the National Crime Record Bureau which analyzes India's drug
problem, as compiled by IAS Rajnish Singh.

All figures taken from data from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB)

1. Growing Problem

A total of 29,247 cases under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, were
registered in 2012 showing an increase of 13.4 percent compared to previous year's 29,048
cases. Trend analysis showed 15.7 percent increase from 2002 and 0.7 percent marginal
increase from the average of last five years (2007-2012).

2. Types of Drugs

The data further said that a total of 13,459 people, including 216 foreigners, were arrested
and 89,519 kg of drugs including opium, morphine, heroin, ganja, hashish, cocaine,
methaqualone, ephedrine, LSD, acetic anhydride, and amphetamine were recovered.

3. The Cost of Life?

At least 13 kinds of different drugs are being smuggled to international market at different
rates starting from Rs.1.5 lakh to Rs.2.5 crore per kg, adding to it the prices increased by 3-5
times when drugs reach Delhi from the bordering states and 5-10 times when it reaches
Mumbai.
After transiting through India, the drugs end up on the streets of North American and
European cities. There is manifold increase, particularly in the price of heroin when the
consignment reaches the international market.

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 SERIOUSNESS OF INDIA’S DRUG PROBLEM
Even though its state government finds it hard to address or even accept it, that Punjab has a
drug abuse problem is widely known. However, recent government data shows that this is not
limited to the North Indian state.

Average incidences of crime under NDPS Act (2005-2014)

35000

30000

25000

20000

15000 31654

10000

5000 10093
7524
2097 2982
0 778
Punjab Uttar Pardesh Tamil Nadu Maharastra Kerela India

Average rate of crime under NDPS Act

Table 1

Punjab’s drug menace is a serious problem is evident from the fact it is perhaps the only state
in recent times to commission a drug abuse study. The Punjab Opioid Dependence Survey,
which was conducted between February and April 2015, found that 230,000 people in the
state were drug users. That translates to 836 drug users per 100,000 people in the state. The
All India number is 250 per 100,000 (for 2012), according to the ministry of social justice
and empowerment.

In 2014 alone, the rate of reported NDPS crimes jumped to 50.5 per 100,000 population —
four times that of second ranked Maharashtra with a rate of 12.4.

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 Rate of drug related crimes populati on 15 years and
above per lakh (2005-2014) (Average)
Rate in population 15 years and above

36.5

8
3.8 3.6 3.8 3.8
P u n j ab U tt a r P a r d e s h Tam i l Nad u Mah ar ast r a K er el a India

Table 2

drug related Crime Rate per lakh population

51.6 50.5

36.4

23.2
18.9 20.2 19.7 18.8
17.3 18.6
16.4 15.2
12.4
11.3
9.4 9.7 8.6
6.3
2.7 3.8
2.8 3.6
2.6 2.7 2.5 2.5 2.4 2.8
2.3 3.8
1.3 2 1.5 1.6 1.8 1 2.1
1.2 1.7
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Punjab Mizoram Maharastra All India

Table 3

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Consider the number of crimes reported under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances (NDPS) Act. There were on average 7,524 instances of crimes related to drugs in
Punjab annually between 2005 and 2014. That’s second only to Uttar Pradesh, India’s most
populous state. Look at the rate of crime per 100,000 population — Punjab fares far worse
than any other state.

In 2014 alone, the rate of reported NDPS crimes jumped to 50.5 per 100,000 population —
four times that of second ranked Maharashtra with a rate of 12.4. According to the National
Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2013, Punjab had the highest number of people booked
under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985.

As many as 14,564 people were booked under this Act, earning Punjab this embarrassing
distinction among all states and union territories of the country. The NCRB report has also
revealed that Punjab has the highest average of drug abuse among youth -- at 51.6%. It is 18
times more than the national average of 2.8%.

Besides, two Punjab cities figure among the top three in India which reported the maximum
drug abuse and peddling activities. While 878 people were booked in Amritsar under the
NDPS Act, 567 in Ludhiana had cases of drug abuse and illicit drug trade activities against
them.

Overall, 34,101 people in India were slapped with the charges under the NDPS Act. With
6039 cases, Uttar Pradesh holds the second position but is far behind the agrarian state in
becoming a drug haven. While the national capital, New Delhi, reported 442 cases,
Maharashtra had 2714 people booked under the Act. The NCRB data also revealed that
conviction rate under in Punjab under the NDPS Act is 80.5%, below the national average of
81%.

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 Drug related suicide per lakh

14.2
12.2

7.7

5.2
4.6 4.2
3 1.4
2 2

hi 0.1
ir
re
la tra a du ur
a
ra
m es
h
di
a l es
h
nj
a b
m
Ke as lN ip zi o ad In De ad Pu sh
ar i Tr
Pr Pr Ka
ah m M a ra u
M Ta hy dh m
ad A n
Ja
m
M

Table 4

Even though its state government finds it hard to address or even accept it, that Punjab has a
drug abuse problem is widely known. However, recent government data shows that this is not
limited to the North Indian state. The data, provided by the National Crime Records Bureau,
showed that the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are at the
top of the table of drug-related suicides.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 3,647 such suicide cases in
India in 2014, of which Maharashtra reported the highest, at 1,372. This was followed by
Tamil Nadu, with 552 cases and Kerala, with 475.

Punjab reported 38 such cases. However, as calculations, the incidence of drug-related

suicides – the number of cases divided by the population – in the state was much lower than
the national average.

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As the chart shows, this comes to about 1.4 suicides per million people, based on the
population of Punjab as per the 2011 Census. In comparison, the national average is three
suicides per million of the population. The drug-related suicide rate in Kerala, for instance, is
at least 10 times as high as in Punjab.

Meanwhile, the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands stands out as an outlier
with almost 37 such instances in a population of just about three lakh. Maharashtra may have
reported the highest number of drug-related suicides in the country, Kerala topped the list in
terms of incidence rate. (The incidence rate is the number of new cases per population at risk
in a given time period)

Additionally, at least 12 states and Union Territories had a higher incidence of these cases
than the national average. These include Haryana, Telangana, Mizoram and Tripura. The
national capital of Delhi, however, reported only 2 cases per million people.

Drug related suicides (2005-2014)

4857
4591
4008
3658
3238
2844
2604
2097 2230
1951

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Drug related suicides (2005-2015)

Table 5

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 Comparative Analysis

The following graph compares the growth rate of the crimes committed, dependency to drugs
and the no.of suicides committed that we have included in the project. The growth rate
analysis is one of the most efficient way of comparing the growth of the of drug usage and
abuse and hence the best and the most reliable method to determine and derive conclusion of
the seriousness of drugs in India.

In the above represented graph

Average rate of crime(Table 1)- This table talks about Incidence of number of crime cases;
Rate is the number of crimes per lakh population .This table shows average rate of crime
committed under NDPS ACT in a particular state in the period of 2005-2014, from this we
can derive that even though the consumption of drugs is not very high in Uttar Pradesh but
the crime committed are highest in India standing at 10093 followed by Punjab at 7524 where
drug consumption is highest as shown in Table 2 from this we can drive that even derive that
consumption is not directly related to crimes committed.

Rate in population 15 years and above per lakh (Table 2) - This table compares
population above 15 years and compares it with no crimes committed from year 2005-2014.
This table shows that Punjab has highest rate of drug related crime in India even though Uttar
Pradesh has highest Incidences of drug crime, this is further due to the fact that Punjab has a
population of 27.98 million which is just 10% of Uttar Pradesh which stands at 204.2 million,
this fact further proves that Uttar Pradesh having 8 crimes per lakh is valid as well as Punjab
having 36.5 crimes per lakh totally believable.

Drug Crime Rate per lakh population (Table 3)- This table show rate of drug crime
committed per lakh population, this table shows full data from 2005-2014 as Table 2 showed
average of all the years. From this table we can see that drug related crimes have been on a
constant rise in India especially in Punjab rising from 17.3 crimes per lakh to 50.5 crimes per
lakh. While other states like Mizoram and Maharashtra which are not in limelight also saw a

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massive increase, which drug crimes from nearly 2-3 per lakh to 15 per lakh and Indian
average increased from 2.8 to 3.8 per lakh.

Drug related suicide per lakh (Table 4) – This table shows data of drug related suicides of
different stated i.e. no of drug related suicides per lakh suicides from 2005-2014. We are able
to analyse that even though Drug consumption is not that high as Punjab in Kerala but no of
suicides committed are highest in Kerala at 14.2 followed by Maharashtra at 12.2 and Punjab
is just at 1.4 per lakh but as Table 2 Punjab has 36.5 crimes per lakh four times next state of
Uttar Pradesh but surprisingly Uttar Pradesh is not even in Table 4 as it has less than 0.1
suicides per lakh.

Drug related suicides (2005-2014)(Table 5)- This table deals no of suicides occurred from
2005-2014 as a total in all of India. From the above graph we can observe that the rate of
drug related suicides is increasing at a very fast pace, highlighting the problems that people
are facing due to their addiction to drugs in India. The rate of suicides per year is increasing
at an increasing rate from which we can imply that the various measures that were taken since
2005 and the policies and laws still active in India for prevention and punishment for
consumption of drugs has been utterly fruitless.

The above study also indicates that in all the states we can see that there is a lot of drastic
change in the first decade of the 21st century whereas with the beginning of the second
decade of this century there has been a lot of increase in the extreme and drastic change in the
growth rate of drug crimes.

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 Conclusion

After analysing the data which we have so far collected we can come to the conclusion that

although the average rate of crime under the NDPS is the highest in Punjab(7524) second

only to Uttar Pradesh we can see that Punjab stands as the state with the highest drug related

crimes per lakh population. Another conclusion that can be drawn from the graphs presented

in table 3 that most of the crimes committed in the state of Punjab is by the population with

the age group of 15 years and above. Even though it has such high statistics of crimes the

state of Punjab has relatively very low rate of drug related suicides.

It can be concluded that from the graph depicted in table 5 the rate of suicides in India is

increasing at an increasing rate. This clearly enlightens us with the fact, about the incapability

of the Government to enforce the laws that were formulated decades ago to control the plaque

of drug addiction and its prevention in the country.

From the analysed data we can clearly observe that even though the overall crime rate in

Kerala is comparatively low compared to the other states it records the highest number of

suicides committed with the primary reasons of them being drug related.

From the above data we can conclude that drug related suicides is independent to the drug

consumption and the drug related crimes is not a determining factor in this scenario.

As per the study the Punjab Opioid Dependence Survey, 836 people out of every 100,000

people are suffering from drug related problems, which is the highest for any state. which

justifies the reason why the state is suffering from the heightened crime rates compared to

any other state of India

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following websites were referred during the making of the project

www.wikipedia.com

www.livemint.com

www.timesmedia.com

www.scroll.com

www.indiastat.com

www.data.gov.in

The following journals were referred during the making of the product

National Crime Record Bureau

Data from Indian Census 2011

Data from Ministry of Home Affairs Website 17 October 2016

The Punjab Opioid Dependence Survey

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