Recently, two states in the US, Washington and Colorado, liberalised their narcotics laws and decriminalised recreational marijuana. India though, is years away from even a debate on these lines — though our repressive position on narcotics has clearly not served us. India’s strict narcotics laws have been ineffective. Supply and demand for all narcotic and synthetic drugs has risen rapidly after the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) in 1985. All the police does is arrest the most defenceless in the drug chain — drug users, and those who sell small quantities to pay for their addiction.