Even as India gets its yearly rap form the United Nations for not having updated data on drug abuse (last survey was done in 2001), not much has changed. Lately, when the central government woke up to its best of intention of conducting such a survey, it found the Congress ruled states - Maharashtra and Manipur as laggard in conducting pilot survey on drug abuse. On the other hand, Punjab has been doing the survey properly. The three states were chosen for the survey because of high prevalance of drug abuse.
 
"The survey in Maharashtra and Manipur is moving at a slow pace. In Punjab, we have moved very fast and we will complete it in the next four months," TR Meena, joint secretary, ministry for social justice and empowerment which is the nodal ministry for all matters relating to alcoholism and substance (drug) abuse and rehabilitation, said. He spoke during the launch of the latest International Narcotics Control Board report on Tuesday in New Delhi.

Since late 2012, the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has been carrying out an advanced pilot survey in three states - Punjab, Maharashtra and Manipur. The main purpose was to test the efficacy of the sampling design and survey instruments for a national survey that will gauge the extent, pattern and trends of drug abuse in the country.

Hopefully, if all goes well, we will be completing the pilot survey by the end of this year. On that basis, we will then launch the national survey next year. The states have to be active in this regard," added Meena.

The last drug abuse survey was done in 2001 by the ministry of social justice and empowerment in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The report was published in 2004. Thirteen years have been passed since the last survey and India doesn't have updated information on exact number of people using such drugs.

"People misusing prescription drugs are growing in India but there is an absence or inadequacy of reliable information, data collection and strategic analysis on this," Christina Albertin, representative of the UNODC, said. She also said that India and Bangladesh are the main source of pharmaceutical drugs, easily available in medicine shops.

However, the ministry of social justice and empowerment has been conducting awareness campaign about the harmful impact of drugs in 17 districts of Punjab and seven districts of Manipur in collaboration with the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, an autonomous body under the ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, and the National Bal Bhavan. It is also giving final touches to the draft paper on national policy on drug demand reduction.