Call it an exponential rise in drug-trafficking or effective law enforcement, narcotic cases, especially those involving synthetic drugs, are on the rise in Alappuzha.
Cases registered by the police and the excise under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the first five months of this year have almost reached the number registered in the whole of 2021. The police and the excise registered as many as 617 NDPS cases and arrested 682 people between January and May this year as against 711 cases in the entire 2021.
This year, the police alone registered 478 NDPS cases, while the number of cases taken by the excise stands at 139. During the five-month period, they separately seized 181 kg of ganja, 397.3 g of MDMA, 167 g of hashish oil, 11 LSD stamps, 20 nitrazepam tablets, 3 g of heroin, 8.31 g of charas and so on.
Though the majority of the cases registered in the last five months pertains to the sale and use of ganja, there is a marked increase in the seizure of psychoactive drugs such as MDMA (methylened ioxy-methamphetamine) and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide).
The MDMA seizure by the police jumped from 20 g in 2021 to 350 g in 2022. Similarly, the excise seizure of the MDMA increased from 18.19 g to 47.3 g. Officials of the police and the excise wings said the increased seizure of substances such as MDMA indicated that more and more people, especially the youth and students, were migrating from ganja to more powerful addictive drugs.
Drug lobbies
MDMA is sold in Alappuzha between ₹2,000 and ₹5,000 per gram. According to the police, Bengaluru-based drug lobbies were behind the flow of psychotropic drugs to the district.
"There is a marked increase in the cases involving psychotropic drugs. The majority of the clients are youths and students. Apart from registering cases and arresting drug peddlers, we are also going after the source of the synthetic drugs seized," said Binukumar M.K., Deputy Superintendent of Police (Narcotic Cell), Alappuzha.
The police crackdown on drug peddlers is carried out under the aegis of the District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF). District Police Chief G. Jaidev directly monitors the functioning of the DANSAF.
As Alappuzha sees an alarming rise in substance abuse cases, the demand for setting up a de-addiction centre at General Hospital, Alappuzha, is getting shriller.
