Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested a drug trader along with arms in Senbagh upazila of Noakhali on Thursday night.
Arrested Ala Uddin Bocha, 33, is an accused in two cases, including of drugs and snatching, said with Senbagh Police Station officer in-charge Mizanur Rahman. A team of RAB-11 in a drive arrested Ala Uddin along with arms and Yaba tablets from Debi Singpur area at night, the OC added.
In recent decades, illicit drug abuse has become a recurrent phenomenon of many countries of the world with massive socio-economic and human consequences. In May of last year, Bangladesh started a 'war on drugs' after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared a zero-tolerance policy against illegal drugs.
This war on drug operations confiscated thousands of vanilla-scented, pink-coloured pills of "yaba" -- which derives its name from a Thai word that means a "crazy medicine". Mostly transported illegally from the Myanmar to the local market, yaba is the current choice of the drug of Bangladeshi youths.
The recent success of law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh is motivating some drug dealers to surrender, and has led to the rounding-up of many low-level drug operatives and elimination of some dangerous actors. This should not, however, blind the administration to only continue the criminal justice strategies.
The history of the US war on drugs suggests that sheer law enforcement strategy is not good enough to address the addiction problem of a community; this, instead, needs a multipronged strategy along with criminal justice strategy.
This multipronged strategy should include: (1) a long-term plan to understand the socio-economic factors forcing some youths to become addicts; (2) a long-term plan to find what economic factors are pushing many to take street pushers' jobs to make a leavins; (3) a long-term criminal justice investigative unit to identify the kingpins of drug business; (4) a long-term strategy to develop educational institution-based addiction prevention programmes; (5) a long-term strategy to develop addiction intervention program for current addicts. All these strategies eventually will reduce demand, harm, and supply of drugs too.