Kozhikode: Drug peddlers of the region are increasingly turning to smuggling psychotropic drugs and other newly-introduced similar products including toffees and tablets targeting the school children as the excise department has tightened surveillance on smuggling of ganja and other regular drugs in to the state. The new drugs are being circulated on the premises of schools where their detection is also difficult, according to officials.
Officials say vendors most often replace the toffees by the time the undercover cops reach the spot on a tip-off. The excise officials in Palakkad seized 24 bottles of mouth spray in different flavours About 10 days back. The spray was being sold along with other Chinese products. “The 4-inch high bottles had flavours in strawberry, orange and apple,” said V.P. Sulesh Kumar, assistant excise commissioner, Palakkad. “They have the looks of a mouthspray but give a tingle when sprayed into mouth. Even the shop-owners have not much details of the product as they come along with other Chinese products.”
Excise officials in Kozhikode seized 705 Nitrazepam tablets near a temple in Vadakara earlier this week, marking the biggest seizure in the district this year. The drugs in the form of tablets are believed to have been brought to be sold to school students, said the officials. Child Line officials in Kozhikode had already reported that there had been an overuse of liquor and drugs in the border panchayats, lying close to Mahe, where even the schoolchildren were exposed to drugs at their houses.
