Has Kerala Surpassed Punjab In Drug Menace? The Southern State’s Narcotics War Explained
In 2024, Kerala recorded 27,701 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act— more than three times Punjab’s 9,025 cases, according to the Union Home Ministry
Kerala is fighting a heavy-duty war on drugs, with the growing use of psychotropic substances against the youth. In the last three year, there is a sudden increase in cases of drug abuse, with the Kerala High Court warning of a “drug mafia".
Several campaigns such as ‘Love-a-Thon’ have been conducted in schools and colleges against drug abuse, with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan urging the police to crack down heavily on the drug trade.
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The Kerala Assembly was also suspended last month over the issue, with members across political lines speaking of the growing influence of new-age drugs on youth and the need to increase enforcement.
Kerala’s Drug Problems In Numbers
Kerala, which is the most literate state in India, is seeing a growing drug crisis, overtaking Punjab – the drug epicenter of the country, in numbers.
In 2024, Kerala recorded 27,701 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act— more than three times Punjab’s 9,025 cases, according to the Union Home Ministry.
The drug cases in the state have surged from 5,695 in 2021 to 26,619 in 2022 and surpassed 30,000 in 2023.
The state has registered 87,101 drug-related cases in the last four years – over a 130% increase over the previous four-year period’s 37,228 cases, according to the state government.
This worrying trend reflects the state’s strict policing and enforcement laws, but at the same time highlights a growing drug crisis is infesting India’s smaller towns and rural areas.
In terms of the number of cases filed under NDPS Act in 2024, Kerala stands as a stark outlier with 78 cases per lakh people. While Punjab recorder 30 cases per lakh people. No others state had a rate more than 25 cases per one lakh people, as per a report by The Hindu.
The problem is not limited to urban areas of Kerala. In fact, every district in Kerala recorded at least 500 cases under the NDPS Act in 2022.
While Mumbai district accounted for 80% of all NDPS Act cases in Maharashtra in 2022, Bengaluru district made up 63% of Karnataka’s total, as per The Hindu report.
How Are Drugs Entering Kerala?
Drug trafficking routes in Kerala span land and sea, with Bengaluru emerging as a main transit point.
In 2019, total synthetic drug seizures in Kochi amounted to just 2.49 kg. In 2023, a single haul netted 2,525 kg of methamphetamine or meth—an astronomical leap. While Ernakulam, which has become a hotbed of drugs in Kerala, recorded 8,567 NDPS cases from January 2023 to June 2024—nearly matching Punjab’s total of 9,025 cases for all of 2024, as per a report by The Economic Times.
Unlike the traditional methods where drugs were smuggled in large numbers, these days the trade is hyperlocal, operating through a network of local informal contacts than conventional supply chains.
Another Hindu report highlighted how investigators detected 1 kg of ganja couriered from Thailand to Kerala via the International Post Office in Kochi in February and the intercepted courier delivery of synthetic drugs to a peddler in Kochi in 2022, pointing to the emerging trend of using cryptocurrency through offshore banks for narcotics-related transactions.
According to officials, the Coastal Bulletin, an internal circular from the Kerala Coastal police, noticed an increased use of South Asian sea routes to smuggle drugs into southern states, including Kerala. The police have established anti-narcotic Special Operations Groups in Station Houses across Kerala and stepped up preventive detention and seizure of assets of habitual drug offenders.
What Is The Government Doing To Stop The Menace?
The Kerala Police has been spreading the word on social media, borrowing a punchline from a hit Mohanlal film — “Narcotics is a dirty business."
Vigilante committees have been set up across districts, often meting out swift, brutal street justice to suspected drug peddlers. One panchayat in Malappuram has even promised a reward of Rs 10,000 for whistleblowers, as per a report by The Economic Times.
The state government has formed an anti-narcotics task force, appointing senior officer ADGP Manoj Abraham to take up the challenge.
As per a report by The Week, excise officers are trained in drug law enforcement, as well as modern methods for detecting and preventing drug trafficking. They also receive training in cyber-surveillance, financial tracking of drug networks, and forensic analysis to bolster their enforcement capabilities. But, on the ground, the cyber wing of the excise department has largely remained ineffective so far because of its dependency on the police for inputs.
It further said excise officers face delays in getting information from the police cyber wing as its requests are not prioritised and there is a lack of coordination between the two departments.
State excise minister MB Rajesh in February highlighted the ‘Magnitude of Substance Abuse in India Report, 2019’ to prove Kerala was at the bottom of the spectrum. He showed in the Assembly that 24,517 arrests were made in the state in 2024 in narcotic-related cases – the highest in the country.
Rajesh said Kerala’s conviction rate for narcotic cases was 98.9% while the national average was 78%. He also said Kerala accounts for just Rs 60 crore of the Rs 16,000 crore worth of drugs seized in the country in 2023, as per online Manorama – Kerala’s popular news outlet.
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