As Bangladesh observes the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on Friday, experts have warned that the government's proposed overhaul of the Narcotics Control Act may speed up drug trials but will do little to dismantle the criminal syndicates behind the country's rapidly expanding narcotics trade.
While the draft amendment seeks to establish special narcotics tribunals to clear a backlog of more than 600,000 drug cases, legal and criminology experts say it fails to target the financiers, syndicate leaders, cross-border operators and other beneficiaries who control the illicit drug economy.
The warning comes amid a sharp rise in drug addiction nationwide.
According to the latest Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) survey, an estimated 8.3 million people in Bangladesh are now addicted to drugs, more than double the 3.6 million recorded in a 2018 survey by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Meanwhile, DNC data shows narcotics are entering the country through 162 routes across 29 border districts, with yaba, crystal methamphetamine (ice), heroin, phensedyl, cannabis, tapentadol and cocaine continuing to spread despite repeated anti-drug drives.
Experts welcomed the proposal for dedicated tribunals but argued that faster case disposal alone cannot break the networks sustaining the trade.
Professor Muhammad Omar Faruk of the Department of Criminology and Police Science at Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University said the soaring number of drug users reflects a worsening national crisis.
“If the number of drug addicts has reached 8.3 million, it clearly indicates a serious deterioration of the drug situation,” he told Dhaka Tribune.
He said law enforcement operations continue to focus primarily on users and street-level dealers while those financing and protecting the trade largely remain untouched.
“Drug control will only be possible when the godfathers are uprooted,” he said.
Legal experts voiced similar concerns.
Senior High Court lawyer Sayeed Ahmed Raza said the proposed amendment contains no legal obligation to identify or prosecute the individuals controlling drug syndicates.
“Drug trafficking is an organized crime. To suppress it effectively, the entire network must be identified,” he said, arguing that investigations should trace financial flows, supply chains and the beneficiaries of drug profits rather than stop at frontline offenders.
He said that countries such as Brazil, Thailand and the United States have laws specifically targeting organised narcotics networks, whereas Bangladesh's proposed reforms remain focused mainly on accelerating trials.
The government says special Narcotics Crime Suppression Tribunals will help address chronic delays, with some drug cases currently taking 10 to 15 years to conclude.
Md Manjurul Islam, deputy director (Prevention, Education and Research) of DNC Chittagong Metro South, said dedicated courts could reduce trial times to about six months.
However, a review of the draft law shows most provisions deal with tribunal jurisdiction, case transfers and appeals, while giving comparatively little attention to financial investigations, asset tracing or identifying those directing narcotics operations.
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed recently told Parliament that the government was pursuing short-, medium- and long-term strategies under its zero-tolerance policy against drugs and updating nationwide lists of drug traffickers.
But policy experts caution that unless the law also follows the money and targets the organisers, financiers and beneficiaries of the narcotics trade, Bangladesh's drug syndicates are likely to remain largely untouched -- regardless of how quickly cases move through the courts.