"The narcotics trade in Punjab is no longer merely a public health problem but a crime–terror nexus." Discuss, with reference to drone-based cross-border smuggling.

Punjab's drug crisis was once seen mainly as an addiction epidemic. Today the same cross-border channel carries both heroin and weapons. In 2025, 782 of India's 791 drone intrusions were recorded on the Punjab–Rajasthan border [1]. The trade is still a health crisis, but it is now also a security threat.

Public health dimension: still real

• Demand base: the AIIMS national survey found that Punjab is among the few states that together account for over half of India's opioid use disorder cases [5].
• Data gap: this 2019 survey is still the latest national estimate [5]. Policy therefore has no fresh baseline to measure progress against.

Drone-based smuggling: the crime–terror link

• Dual payloads: of the 237 drones brought down on the International Border in 2025, 72 carried narcotics and 5 carried war-like stores [1]. Drugs and arms use the same route, which is the core of narco-terror.
• Rising scale: MHA reported 53 drone recoveries in the three years to June 2023 [2]. Activity in 2025 was far higher, though better detection explains part of the rise.
• Deniability: drones let handlers across the border supply drugs and arms without crossing it themselves.
• Funding loop: drug money keeps gangster networks going and can fund militancy. This ties traffickers, gangs and hostile handlers together.
• Violence: reported killings of anti-drug activists, police personnel and local politicians show organised crime openly challenging the state's authority.

Response and gaps

• Legal: border forces are empowered under the NDPS Act, 1985 to seize drugs. They run joint operations with state police, the NCB and the DRI [3].
• State level: Punjab's Anti-Narcotics Task Force, headed by a Special DGP, shares real-time intelligence with the BSF, DRI and Customs [4].
• Gaps: intelligence is split between the BSF, the state and central agencies. Police is a State subject, so the Centre and the state must coordinate. Drugs sold by local pharmacies never cross the border, so border tools cannot stop them.

Way forward: Punjab's drug trade must be treated as both a health problem and a security problem. That calls for:

• a counter-drone grid using jammers and spoofers [1];
• one shared Centre–State intelligence platform that follows a drone drop to the gang that collects it;
• protection for people who report drug sellers;
• a fresh national survey;
• stronger de-addiction services.

Cutting both supply and demand together would protect national security and fulfil Article 47 and SDG 3.5 (preventing and treating substance abuse).