CM Pramod Sawant wakes up to youth drug abuse, says parents to blame

PANAJI: A month after TOI front-paged a report on how drugs are freely available in schools and colleges, chief minister Pramod Sawant assured the House that his government was “serious about dealing with drug cases” and “wants to make Goa drugs-free”.
TOI, in its report dated June 16, had pointed out how hash-laced brownies are being innocuously passed around in school corridors and outside college campuses. Sawant, who had maintained that the anti-narcotic cell (ANC) of the Goa police was doing “very good work”, changed track on Tuesday.
After several MLAs, including those from his own party, seemingly agreed with TOI’s report and pointed out that drugs had snared youths, the CM decided to put the blame on parents. “Parents need to be sensitive also,” he said. “For everything, you cannot say the blame lies with the government. Parents will have to take responsibility. Just saying police are responsible won’t help.”
Ironically, TOI had pointed out how, with fewer glaze-eyed youths having needle marks, parents are often none the wiser about the intoxicating substance lurking inside what looks like a harmless piece of cake.
Sawant, who is also the home minister, then went on to defend his government's efforts to combat drug abuse, claims that were ridiculed by the opposition.
“We are carrying out awareness programmes in schools and colleges. Goans have to be aware. If any case is noticed, they can inform the PI of that area or the SP or even the IGP,” Sawant said. “We want good tourism in the state.”
He also said that till date, not a single complaint of use of drugs in schools and colleges in the state have been received by police.
“To create a deterrent impact against drug activities, drug-prone areas are kept under continuous surveillance. Bar and restaurants and shacks along the drug-prone belt are subjected to surprise checks,” Sawant said.But Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco rubbished Sawant’s assurances. “At Curlies (one of the popular shacks) on the North Goa coastal belt, a table is available for Rs 70,000 and you are served a variety of drugs,” he told the chief minister.
St Andre MLA Francis Silveira, a recent BJP inductee, also said that youths were going up a hill at Mandur post-sunset to consume drugs.
Sawant said that any citizen can report suspected drug sale or its use and the complaint would be taken seriously. A raid will be carried out at the suspected location immediately and confidentiality of the citizen would be maintained, he said.
Sawant also said that in recent years, 2,900 drug-related cases were registered and the rate of arrests as against the complaints registered was 99.75%.
He said the government has adopted zero-tolerance policy against drugs, but Lourenco questioned the chief minister that if he was serious about a zero-tolerance policy, then why was the state forensic lab at Verna not fully functional.
“The home department has already moved proposal for upgradation of the lab in Verna to test drugs like heroin. The process for procurement of narcotic standard reference samples has been initiated, so as to make the narcotic division of forensic science laboratory fully functional,” said Sawant.
A reply tabled in the assembly on drug cases showed that all samples of drugs like cocaine, LSD, MDMA and heroin among others had gone to the central forensic lab in Hyderabad for testing.
Most drugs make its way to Goa by train and through the state’s porous borders and is sourced from Mumbai, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Gokarna in Karnataka, and the Andhra Pradesh-Odhisa border districts. The ‘stuff’ is then sold at internet cafes, money-exchange shops, shacks or by friends.