India, Sept. 29 -- Across India, from remote towns to bustling city streets, stories of shattered families and wasted youth are becoming grimly familiar. India, once viewed mainly as a transit route between global narcotics hubs, is now grappling with the rising domestic consumption. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, lakhs of drug-related cases are reported each year.

For many families, the menace is deeply personal. In a village near Punjab's Amritsar district, 42-year-old Manmeet Kaur recalls how her son Gurdeep, once an aspiring cricketer, fell into heroin abuse at the age of 19. Despite repeated rounds of treatment, he relapsed and died last year. "He was full of dreams," she says quietly, clutching his old cricket bat....