In the 10 years since Bihar imposed prohibition – back in April 2016 – its police have seized around 3.16 crore litres of liquor and made around 7.15 lakh related arrests. That is an average of about 8,650 litres and 196 arrests every day. But this is not the story. The story is the emergence a parallel illegal goods market – selling narcotics – taking shape beyond the liquor business; packets of brown sugar, pills, injection vials, and heroin , as well as a raw variant called ‘kota’. All of these are pocket-sized contraband, small enough to fit in soap boxes or even the folds of a petticoat, and that makes detection a particular challenge.

Over the past three months, The Indian Express reviewed case records and police data, and spoke to law enforcement agencies, social workers and doctors. And we found that cases under the NDPS Act – i.e., the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985 – have risen sharply.…