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industry and illicit manufacture of drugs and precursor chemicals, as well as the non-medical use of prescription drugs.
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 ensures that India fulfils its obligations under UN Drug Conventions and prohibits the manufacture, production, trade, use, etc. of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, except for medical or scientific purposes. The rules and schedules of the NDPS Act, 1985 are constantly being updated to keep it in tune with the innovations and developments in the field of drugs and psychotropic substances, including the challenges in drug law enforcement. For instance, India faces a huge problem of synthetic drugs like Mephedrone, Amphetamine Type Substances (ATS) and New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) apart from NDPS substances like Ganja, Charas, Heroin, Cocaine etc.
India has adopted the policy of empowering multiple agencies to enforce the NDPS Act and DRI is one among them. Being the apex anti-smuggling agency, DRI also coordinates with various
national and international enforcement agencies as a part of its law enforcement efforts against smuggling of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. DRI has had major successes by effecting seizures of varied NDPS substances even at the risk to the lives of its officers. DRI has also been instrumental in identifying distinct trends in manufacturing and trafficking of NDPS substances. It has been combating this menace by busting factories, engaged in manufacturing significant quantities of narcotic drugs and precursor chemicals, busting domestic cartels, seizing narcotic substances attempted to be smuggled into India from various ports, airports etc. DRI has been able to upgrade itself in terms of intelligence development and investigation skills continuously to counter the ever new methods being adopted by the drug traffickers like using courier and postal cargo to smuggle drugs. Apart from the work in India, DRI has also successfully passed on intelligence to foreign nations, as a part of international efforts against transnational trade of illicit drugs.
CHAPTER 10: ENFORCEMENT OF ALLIED ACTS: ROLE OF DRI 131