Peddlers sell drugs to addicts and often carry a small quantity of drugs at a time. Many of them are also addicts themselves and peddle drugs to earn for meeting their own requirement of drugs. Peddlers are the final link in the chain from manufacturer to addicts and hence an effective strategy is required to handle them.
They are large in number and spread throughout the country. Specialized enforcement agencies often do not have the manpower and resources to handle peddlers and hence it is left to the local police to handle them. Local police have several competing demands on their time and dealing with peddlers is often not one of those demands and there is no pressure from the public to deal with them.
Some policemen also do not find it convenient to arrest a peddler who is also an addict as he cannot be supplied the drugs which he needs a few hours after his arrest and the policemen are not trained to handle addicts.
1. Street peddlers being the important final link between the addicts and the traffickers, it is vital to contain them to tackle the drug problem. Hence, to deal with peddlers, the steps will be taken to:
a) Increase public awareness about the potential harm street peddlers can do to their societies and their children and the need to report peddlers to police and to follow up.
b) Increasingly involve NGOs, resident welfare societies, etc. in reporting peddlers and following up with police.
c) Sensitize police to the fact that dealing with street peddlers is an important part of their job.
d) Train and build capacities of local police to deal with peddlers including those who are addicts themselves.
e) In large cities, develop special, mobile, anti-peddling squads of police with jurisdiction all over the city and linked to a helpline.
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