Speaking at a function organised by The Women of the United Nations and The United Nations International Drug Control Programme, Bedi said that the job of the police and community workers was not in two different watertight compartments. ``The police have the power to break the vicious circle of arrest-jail-bail-arrest-jail of drug addicts by correcting them,'' she said giving the example of Navjyoti, her project on drug addicts.

Earlier, Jimmy Dorabjee, programme manager of Sharan, a drug rehabilitation centre had the audience spellbound with his tale of drug abuse which took him from Colaba police station cell to the Mumbai state prison on charges of murder; to the Frankfurt prison for being a drug carrier and his resolve to not only stay off drugs but also provide peer guidance to youngsters who may have strayed towards drugs.

Dr Abdul Latif, regional representative for south Asia, said that the concept of a drug-free society was utopian. He also said that people generally moved from soft drugs to hard drugs. Answering a question Dr Latif said that experimenting with legalisation of drugs had failed in the United States of America and, therefore, abandoned.