Sikkim’s Alternative Model to Tackle Drug Abuse: An Analysis of the Sikkim Anti-Drugs Act, 2006

Through a series of research studies, we investigate the impact that criminalisation of drug use has on people and drug use itself. Our first report made a case for decriminalising cannabis use in India. Our subsequent study on drug use in Mumbai argues that the application of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (‘NDPS Act’) targets the marginalized and exploits the very people it is supposed to protect. We now present a counter to the deterrence based model that the NDPS Act embodies. We analyse the Sikkim Anti-Drugs Act of 2006 (‘SADA’), which has decriminalised drug use and looks at drug abuse as a health issue. We trace the development of SADA, through its various amendments and look at how a healthbased approach to drug abuse has ushered a positive change in Sikkim. We employ SADA to argue against the inefficacy of tackling drug abuse through deterrence and criminalization.