Kochi: Prescription tablets such as hypnotic drugs are becoming a major trend among the drug peddlers in the district as the excise department has seized around 472 drug tablets from 37 NDPS cases in the past two weeks.
Of these, Nitrazepam has more demand than Alprazolam and Diazepam which are also on the usual list.
A total of 782 Nitraz-epam and 90 Alprazo-lam tablets were seized from June till date. It was during this period, the excise sleuths seized Amphetamine drugs, for the first time in the district.
Amphetamines are central nervous system (CNS) stimulants which are highly addictive. Though it was only around 2 grams, they are highly addictive among the youths, officials said. Around 5 grams of MDMA tablets were also seized in this period.
According to Excise Deputy Commissioner K Chandrapalan, the reason behind the sharp rise is because it is easy to smuggle and gives a high for longer duration than other drugs. “Drugs such as ganja are very difficult to procure, transport and exchange. Moreo-ver, youths find tablets easy to consume and gives a high for long time than other drugs,” he said. “Peddlers target youth because they can be easily manipulated.”
He said that tablets are usually bought fr-om Bengaluru and Goa, drugs such as MDMA from Mumbai, Charas, a type of hash-ish, from North East and Nepal and Ganja from Jharkhand. Cum-bum and Theni were the former producers of ganja.
Compared to Kerala and the enforcement activities here, Bengaluru is an easy spot for the peddlers to procure the prescription drugs from medical shops, the officials said.
According to Mr Chandrapalan, the de-addiction process to drugs is nearly impossible compared to alcohol. He said that the issues in parenting is one of the major problems behind a sharp rise in teen cases. “Of these cases, parents’ divorce is the main reason. Teenagers lose trust in parents and follow the lead of others instead,” he said.
