Name: Aishwarya Kanwar
Country: India

Year: 2026
Volume: Vol-11, No.2, July-Dec-2026
Page Number: 128-134
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22268763

ABSTRACT
Punjab, an international border state in north-western India, has for over two decades been characterised as one of the epicentres of India's narcotics crisis. This paper undertakes a doctrinal and policy-analytical review of drug law enforcement in Punjab under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, examining how legal architecture, institutional capacity and public policy interact to shape enforcement outcomes. Drawing on statutory provisions, reported rulings of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the study traces the evolution of enforcement institutions from the Special Task Force to the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF). Results show that while reported conviction rates under the NDPS Act increased significantly between 2022 and 2026, case registrations decreased during about the same time period, raising concerns about the accuracy of enforcement statistics. The analysis identifies four recurring challenges: judicially noted investigative weaknesses and a suspected police–accused nexus in bail proceedings; a persistent bias toward prosecuting low-level peddlers rather than organised trafficking networks; unresolved tension between the Act's punitive architecture and harm-reduction interventions such as opioid substitution therapy; and the rapid growth of cross-border drone-based trafficking that has outpaced existing coordination mechanisms. The study argues that legal reform, institutional retraining, professionalisation policy should be undertaken together, rather than as alternatives, to ensure that enforcement improvements result to a sustainable decline in the underlying narcotics problem.

Keywords: NDPS Act 1985; Punjab; drug law enforcement; narcotics policy; harm reduction; Anti-Narcotics Task Force; NCORD; cross-border trafficking; opioid substitution therapy