Criminalisation Leads To Exploitation: The Mumbai Story No One Knows About

What happens when a poorly conceived law meets an overzealous police force and an apathetic judiciary? We study the application of Section 27 of the NDPS Act (henceforth called ‘the law’) in Mumbai to understand whether criminalisation of drug use serves its stated objective of curbing drug consumption. The law makes consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance punishable with imprisonment up to a year. We argue that this law, in effect, leads to the exploitation of the very people it purports to protect.