With over 500 cases in every district, Kerala’s drug menace is widespread and escalating

Students of the Government Polytechnic College, Kalamassery, take a pledge as part of an anti-drug campaign
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

Over the past three years, there has been a sudden surge in drug abuse in Kerala, sparking widespread concern. In March, the Kerala High Court warned of the “poisonous fangs of the drug mafia”, while the Governor met with university Vice-Chancellors to address student drug use.

The State Higher Education Department launched a ‘Love-a-Thon’ campaign against substance abuse, and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged new Sub-Inspectors to take a lead in combating the drug trade. Last month, the State Assembly suspended regular business to discuss the growing crisis.

The reactions are well-founded. Chart 1 shows the State-wise number of cases filed under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, between 2017 and 2024. The number of cases under the Act surged from 5,695 in 2021 to 26,619 in 2022 and surpassed 30,000 in 2023. In 2024, over 27,701 cases were recorded.

Chart 1 | Number of cases filed under the NDPS Act

While drug abuse has long been a concern in Kerala and in States such as Punjab, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, the recent spike is alarming. For instance, in 2023, Maharashtra, which had recorded the second-highest number of cases under the NDPS Act, recorded only half as many cases as Kerala.

In 2024, the gap widened further, with Punjab recording the second-highest number of cases that year — yet only a third of Kerala’s total. Several States appear to show a decline in cases in 2023 and 2024. This should be read with caution, as the latest data may be provisional.

Chart 2 highlights the severity of the crisis more clearly. It plots the number of cases filed under the NDPS Act in 2024 for every one lakh people in a State (case rate) on the horizontal axis. It plots the absolute number of cases on the vertical axis. The circle sizes correspond to population estimates for 2022.

Chart 2 | Rate of cases filed under the NDPS Act in 2024

With 78 cases per lakh people, Kerala stands as a stark outlier by a significant margin. Punjab, the nearest major State in terms of case rate, recorded 30 cases per lakh people. Mizoram, too, suffers from a high case rate. No other State had a rate more than 25 cases per one lakh people.

Unlike other States, the problem is not limited to urban centres in Kerala. In fact, every district in Kerala recorded at least 500 cases under the NDPS Act in 2022 — a distinction unmatched by any other State.

For instance, in 2022, Mumbai district accounted for 80% of all NDPS Act cases in Maharashtra, while Bengaluru district made up 63% of Karnataka’s total. In contrast, no single district in Kerala recorded more than 10% of the State’s cases. This widespread distribution makes policing particularly challenging.

The NDPS Act has two key provisions — one for possession of drugs for personal use and another for possession with intent to traffic. Notably, in Kerala, 94% of all the NDPS cases were filed for possession, while only 6% were related to trafficking in 2022. 

Table 3A ranks the top 25 districts with the highest cases of possession in 2022. It shows that 17 of them are in Kerala.

Table 3A | Top districts for most cases of drug possession

Notably, in Table 3B, which ranks the top 25 districts with the highest cases for intent to traffic, not a single district from Kerala features. However, 13 of them were in Punjab.

Table 3B | Top districts for most cases of intent to traffic

It is important to note that the districts mentioned in this analysis refer to police districts, which may not always align with administrative districts. In Kerala, for example, there are 20 police districts. While some are coterminous with administrative boundaries, others are smaller units.

Source: Data for the years 2017 to 2022 were sourced from the NCRB and for the years 2023 and 2024 from the Rajya Sabha Q&A

vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in

sambavi.p@thehindu.co.in