Vicious cycle on with drug cases rising

Twelve years ago, a case was first filed against Kamal after he was arrested with 10 yaba pills.

Since then, the resident of Geneva Camp in Mohammadpur, a notorious drug hotspot in the capital, has been charged with a total of 18 narcotics cases.

A habitual drug peddler, Kamal (whose real name has been withheld) claimed that the system leaves little scope for rehabilitation.

For that first case, Kamal's impoverished family had to borrow Tk 10,000 from a local lender at a high interest rate to pay the lawyer's fees and other expenses to bail him out of jail.

"I had decided to give up yaba peddling after coming out on bail in the first case and worked hard to pay back the loan," he told The Daily Star recently.

But, around nine months later, a police officer put 20 yaba pills in his pocket and arrested him, he alleged.

Another case was filed against him and again his family borrowed money to get him out of jail. He was able to obtain bail after one month of his arrest.

Five days after getting out of jail the second time, Kamal said he was arrested again with 15 yaba pills in his possession.

He said he first entered the illegal trade after losing his job as a sales assistant at a fish shop in Mohammadpur.

Now, with the burdensome legal expenses of three cases and growing debt, he chose to continue in the drugs trade to stay afloat.

"Burdened with debt and to meet regular lawyer's fees at each hearing date of these cases, I chose the easy way to earn money -- that is by drug peddling," he said.

This, however, only led to more cases -- trapping him in a vicious cycle of jail, debt, and return to peddling drugs.

He said he has to appear before court on an average five days a month, to fight the eight pending cases against him.

RISE IN NARCOTICS CASES

Kamal is one of many petty drug peddlers tied up in these narcotics-related cases, which have been rising in the country this past decade.

During a virtual meeting of the Narcotics Control National Advisory Committee on December 28 last year, the director general of the narcotics control department said over four lakh narcotics-related cases were pending.

Although the Covid-induced shutdown last year saw a drop in most other crimes, there was little improvement in the situation of narcotics-related crimes, according to law enforcement data.

Over 80 percent of cases filed with 50 police stations under Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in March this year were related to drugs recovery.

According to the combined data of the law enforcement agencies, 29,662 narcotics cases were filed against 37,508 accused in 2010. In comparison, these figures are around four times higher eight years later -- with 1,19,878 yearly cases and 1,61,323 accused in 2018.

The number of cases recorded the next year, till November 2019, was 1,21,257, data showed.

A police official, preferring not to be named, said they have been struggling with rising cases as most narcotics traders they capture get bail within a short period of time and re-enter the drugs trade.

Another petty drug peddler, also in his 30s like Kamal, requesting anonymity, said once a person gets involved in the narcotics trade, it is not easy for him/her to quit as big drug dealers depend on peddlers.

Investigators too said big drug dealers who remain out of the police net initially spend their own money for legal expenses if their trusted peddlers are arrested.

"Once they [petty drug peddlers] come out of jail, they are again compelled to re-engage in the trade to pay back the money," said an officer-in-charge of a Dhaka police station.

"It's like a vicious cycle. If anyone tries to get back to normal life, they have no options," he said, requesting anonymity.

Contacted, Director General of Department of Narcotics Control Muhammed Ahsanul Jabbar said they are planning to start a project for the rehabilitation of petty drug sellers, in cooperation with the Department of Youth Development and the Department of Social Services, to help them re-integrate into mainstream society.

ILL-EQUIPPED LEGAL SYSTEM

Experts and law enforcers said the age-old criminal justice system is insufficiently equipped to tackle the rise of narcotics-related crimes.

A recent police study of Dhaka Range, which has 17 districts including Dhaka and Gazipur, shows the period of time an accused spent in jail varied widely within the districts under its jurisdiction.

For instance, the accused who were caught with 10 or less yaba pills in 18 cases filed in Narayanganj, spent an average five days in jail, while the accused in 20 similar cases filed in Shariatpur spent an average 8.94 days in jail.

The Dhaka Range conducted an analysis of 6,443 yaba-related cases filed in 13 districts between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 to assess the average period of time the accused in these cases were in jail.

The cases were classified in eight categories based on the amount of seized yaba. Cases filed for the seizure of less than 10 yaba pills fall under the first category while cases lodged for the recovery of 1,000 or more pills fall under the eighth category.

Sociologist Dr M Khurshed Alam, said many of the country's laws were not enacted considering the overall damage done by a crime.

"The laws needed to be updated considering how much damage a particular offence is causing to society, life and property," said Khurshed, also the chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of Social Research Trust.

"Say, for example, 10 yaba pills are recovered from one peddler which he or she is distributing to 10 people and will continue to do that every day. It has a long-lasting and multiplier effect," he said.

Drugs are not consumed alone, he said, with the user forming a group and this leading to the creation of other groups. So, the legal steps and legal procedures should be more stringent, he added.

The Narcotics Control Act 2018, for instance, did not make the possession and sale of narcotics a non-bailable offence. "I can practically see genuine offenders coming out on bail some days after [their] arrest," he said.

Dhaka Metropolitan Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu said courts usually order two days in jails for each yaba pill recovered.

"It varies from court to court. For small cases like the seizure of 10 pieces, courts grant bail in five to eight days," he added.

"There are no set rules. It is completely the court's jurisdiction."

Deputy Inspector General of Dhaka Range Habibur Rahman said it is up to the judiciary whether to grant bail or not. "When anyone commits a crime, we bring them under the law," he added.

The government enacted the Narcotics Control Act 2018 which was passed in parliament on October 27, 2018 with a provision of either the death sentence or life imprisonment as punishment for producing, trading, and using 200g or more of yaba, or more than 25g of heroin and cocaine.

According to the new law, the punishment for transporting, trading, storing, producing, processing, applying, and using 200 grams of yaba, or its principal ingredient amphetamine, is the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Yaba and amphetamines, which were not mentioned in the Narcotics Control Act 1990, were included in the list of Category A narcotics in the new law, which came into effect on December 27, 2018.