BOMBAY (PTI): Manoj Sharma, a 15-yearold U.S. returned youth, killed his grandfather and Cousin with a screwdriver last October in north-west Bombay, allegedly because he was refused money which he desperately needed to buy drugs.
Praveen Bhatnagar was introduced to drugs when he was in class eight. By the time he dropped out of Wilson college, he was hooked, when in Riyadh on a job contract, he learned to sniff petrol, are centered among addicts to get intoxicated.
There are other addicts who experiment with strange combinations just to get a kick, such as after shave lotion mixed with an orange drink, Sometimes this kick ran prove fatal. Once a mere transit point between the golden triangle in south east Asia and the golden crescent in west Asia, India today faces the danger of becoming one of the largest consumer of narcotics in south east Asia.
During the last three years India has also changed from a transit route for drugs meant for the west to a major legal drug producing country, where nearly 80% of this illegal produce is consumed.
With over 2,73,000 drug addicts in the country, the problem of drug abuse today plagues every section of the society, From the foreign returned rich kids to the lowly rag pickers all are victims of this menace.
However, there are a lucky few who manage to get out of the drug trip, thanks (0 the Drug Abuse Information, Rehabilitation and Research Center (DAIRRC), where they get help and treatment to give up drugs, According to a survey conducted by DAIRRC in the commercial capital of India Bombay, there are at least 24,000 cough syrup abusers, 17,000 sleeping tablet consumers. 3,000 glue sniffers and 1,800 tridegesle abusers apart from. 600 petrol sniffers.
A drug addict from the lower rungs of the society can get glue for Rs 10, Glue is generally available in a can and the addict has to just lift the lid slightly and sniff the hydrocarbon that wafts out of it Petrol addicts dip a cloth in petrol and sniff it to get high. Excess consumption can cause diarrhea and finally death.
Ragpickers, addicted to petrol sniffing, are generally seen moving around petrol pumps, says Dr. Yusuf Merchant, president, DAIRRC. Dr. Merchant says drug addicts from the affluent sections of the society are addicted to cough syrups which contain codeine phosphate, an opium alkaloid; an addict who takes a bottle of cough syrup gets the same kick as he can get with a portion of brown Sugar available in the market. Some of the addicts consume cough syrups because they consider it to be legally safe and also because they know that a person cannot be arrested for possessing it Lying between the golden dangle (Thailand Burma: Laos) and golden crescent (Pakistan, Ireland Afghanistan), India has finally fallen prey to the drugs’ lure and now the diversion of poppy pro dace to illegal trade in thriving in several areas.
The gold and silver smugglers have now switched on to drugs for it fetches much higher illegal comings than the smuggling on these two metals.
The narcotics department of the Bombay police have seized nearly 17,000 kgs of drugs valued at about Rs 5 billion in the last four years according to city’s deputy com> missioner of police (narcotics) Rahul Rai Sur.
Seizures of Mandrax tablets have also shot up significantly over the last three years; Sur said, adding that India seems to becoming major supplier of the drug.
Social organizations involved with the prevention of drug addition, however, argue that more stringent punishment in the form of capital punishment should be introduced for drug peddlers.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 10, 1994
