Our Mission

Alliance to Protect Drug Users (APDU) is committed to promote a progressive understanding of drug addiction and campaign for the care, protection, and rights of drug users/addicts. It envisions a society where drug policies are not based on prejudice or moral biases but are grounded in scientific spirit, compassion, health, and human rights. APDU presently focusses on strengthening affected communities in India and initiating conversations with policymakers, media, and the public.

 

Immediate Priorities

 

• Decriminalise all Drug Consumption.

• Abolish death penalty from the NDPS Act, 1985.

• Remove mandatory minimum sentences for people involved in drug trade at low-level.

• Redirect state funds on treatment and care rather than punishment and incarceration. 

• Define addiction as an illness in the NDPS Act, 1985 and the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.

• Define and further distinguish between drug user, addict, peddler in the NDPS Act, 1985.

• Drug addicts should be treated equally before the law as any other physically or mentally-ill patient.

• Therapeutic Jurisprudence should become the core legal philosophy in India’s drug laws.

• Include government and private health insurance cover for drug de-addiction and rehabilitation.

• Formalise the unregulated drug de-addiction and rehabilitation industry and encourage its complete inclusion in the healthcare sector.

• Special de-addiction and rehabilitation centres for juveniles, women, and the LGBTIQ+ community. 

• Allocate national funds for a model rehabilitation centre based on the Minnesota/KRIPA model.

• Public awareness campaigns to de-stigmatise drug use/addiction in society and move beyond stereotypes and unjust, zero-tolerance policies.