Rehabilitation over Criminal prosecution: Promoting Section 64A of the NDPS Act
Last updated: 28 September 2026
Rehabilitation over Criminal prosecution to bring small time criminals or drugs consumers into main stream again
March 2025 - 6 July 2026: 10,656 drug users granted immunity under Section 64A to undergo treatment instead of prosecution[1]
1 March - 31 May 2025[2]: 1121 persons caught with small quantity of drugs have been sent to de-addiction centres for treatment instead of jail
1 Jan - 20 Jan 2025: 295 drug consumers in 245 cases pledged to undergo the rehabilitation treatment in Courts[3]
Section 64A of the NDPS[4]
Promoting Section 64A of the NDPS act
-- Provides opportunity to a drug consumer for rehabilitation
-- Those caught with little quantity of drugs for self consumption
For the First time, drug consumers caught with little quantity of drugs, are availing section 64-A of the NDPS by pledging to undergo the rehabilitation treatment[5]
References:
https://www.outlookindia.com/national/why-punjab-is-granting-legal-immunity-to-drug-users ↩︎ ↩︎
https://yespunjab.com/yudh-nashe-virudh-delivers-major-blow-to-drug-mafia-14734-arrested-rs-74-cr-assets-frozen-dgp-gaurav-yadav/ ↩︎
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chandigarh/punjab-police-high-profile-crimes-solved-terrorists-arrested-2024-9754223/ ↩︎
