Present Scenario

• The last National Survey on the extent, pattern and trend of drug abuse was sponsored by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in the year 2000-2001. The report was published in 2004.
• The Survey estimated that about 7.32 Crore persons in India were users of alcohol and drugs. Of these 87 lakh used Cannabis, 20 lakh used opiates and 6.25 Crore were users of Alcohol.
• The survey covered 40,697 individuals. Only males within the age group of 12-60 years were part of the Survey. The Survey did not provide state level data.
• Since then, there has been no nationwide survey on use of psychoactive substances in the country. Thus, the exact dimensions of this problem in India remain unknown.
• One of the major programming obstacles is inadequate information about the extent and scale of alcohol and drug dependence in the country.
• Additionally, India is expected to report to the international agencies (like United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and World Health Organization) on questions related to data on extent of substance use in India. In such instances, the Government of India has to rely only on the old and outdated estimates available from the survey published in 2004.
• As per the National Policy on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 2012 of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is required to conduct survey every five years to study the change and pattern of drug abuse and assess the impact of various measures taken for reduction in drug supply and demand.
• Thus, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India commissioned the National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use in India with NDDTC, AIIMS as the lead agency for the Survey.