Drug-Abuse in Panjab: Reality vs Govt Campaign, SCI Intervenes

May

2026

A 20-year-old gold medallist boxer Navdeep Singh, died of a drug overdose in Mansa on 9 May. Navdeep won gold medals in Panjab State Games in 2024 and the Panjab State Senior Kickboxing Championship in 2025. The deceased’s father, Jaspal Singh, a daily wager, expressed grief and asked why the police had not taken action to curb drugs? Meanwhile, the busy Lakkar Bridge, Ludhiana has become an open drug-abuse area where young men get high and lie around as passersby avoid them. Lying amid scattered tubes and plastic remnants used for sniffing substance meant for fixing cycle punctures—one of the cheapest forms of intoxication—the scene raises uncomfortable questions about the real impact of much-publicized Panjab government campaigns like Yudh Nasheyan Virudh (War on drugs) and the vision of a Nasha Mukt Panjab (Drug free Panjab). Scenes like these point at the growing reality that public apathy and complacency to drug use and abuse in open spaces is increasing. Additionally, the Supreme Court of India (SCI) slammed the Panjab government for failing to check the drug menace and cautioned that the ‘situation is going out of hand’. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said that while the police nab small-level peddlers for publicity, it fails to catch the ‘bigger sharks’. He said, ‘Today, I don’t want to comment on your police functioning. They need to be sensitized. Whom they are picking up and whom they are letting off—it’s known to everyone. So please do something.’ The CJI also suggested formation of a national agency to monitor pan-India drugs-related cases. The bench had taken up a suo-motu case for creation of exclusive courts across the country for faster disposal of trials under special statutes like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Furthermore, a recent study examining the ‘black economy’ in Panjab says that narcotics trade is the most visible and economically far-reaching of all the forces driving the underground economy in the state. The report reveals that Panjab’s 553-km international border with Pakistan and its vast network of canals and rivers, has made it a critical transit corridor for the cross-border trafficking of heroin and other opioids (earlier coverage).