The Narcotics Control Bureau’s role in unearthing a drug ring manufacturing and dealing in the recreational drug amphetamine, in which a senior IAF officer and a scientist were among those involved, needs to be commended. It busted the ring in coordinated raids across three South Indian cities and, importantly, caught a source of manufacture in a leased lab that was passed off as one making pharmaceuticals. The street value of the drugs was estimated to be over Rs 200 crores. Amphetamine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant used as a “party drug” that acts like a “cool” aphrodisiac and is sold under many fashionable names on the cocktail circuit.
The rule-of-thumb in such seizures is less than 10 per cent is actually caught, while 90 per cent goes to a well-connected network supplying affluent people. They risk addiction, inviting problems with mental skills and sexual functions, but this is of little concern in a hedonistic society. The street value of any recreational drug is many multiples of the cost of making it. Cocaine druglord Pablo Escobarof Colombia’s Medellin cartel exploited this to become one of the world’s richest men. India’s drugs market has expanded hugely in recent times, “graduating” as it were from substances like cannabis, heroin, opium and hasish to more potent party drugs like meth, cocaine, Ecstasy, and similar stuff. But the real question is whether our society is also fighting a losing battle against drugs. No amount of publicised seizures is going to get rid of the problem.
