AA Edit | Innovate in war on drugs

Nothing better supports the theory that there two different Indias as the media report on drug hauls; one, routine, drab, a brief: nameless, where police nab some drugs and their consumers or street-level peddlers. This sporadic kind of action, where the people arrested are nobodies — uneducated, poor, anonymous, faceless, socially powerless and unconnected — is meant to assure us all is well and the system is regularly able to overpower the menace.  

Then there is the celebrity drug crackdown. Private parties in a luxury yacht, exclusive membership-restricted pubs, underbelly of the powerful, connected, rich, and glamorous, marked by celebrity power; where police and narcotics officials intrude by exception, like a failure in the system meant to protect the children of the elite, those who are the future of the India that matters, scions, inheritors, entitled brats.

In the first category, media and society are unconcerned, bored, disinterested, whereas in the second category, the entire system becomes opaque; and works to ensure easy acquittal and whitewashing of the records of those who must not suffer; after all these are the future rulers.

Globally, the best dictum and wisdom on any fight against narcotics is: if you chase the drugs, you will get addicts, consumers, street peddlers, retailers, and very occasionally, higher up the chain, wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers and, seldom, the kingpins. If you follow the money, you will find the truth of the entire system.

India, given its two set of rules, must innovate in its fight and focus on the second. One of the most interesting suggestions is to block drug addicts completely from elitedom. To contest elections or to get your company listed in public, to take UPSC exams or hold positions in bureaucracy or police, have a movie released, or even to get a passport or book a flight, etc., like in sports, there must be white tests.

If we keep the costs of consuming drugs for the elite stringent enough, it will lead to amazing results, proving, all change is possible if we can force a little inconvenience on the truly powerful drivers of the other India.