Going up in Smoke
God’s own country is battling another scourge—drug abuse
A2016 NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau) report gave the first inkling that after alcoholism, Kerala was facing a new crisis. It said that Kochi, the state’s business hub, ranked second only to Amritsar, Punjab, in the number of drug abuse cases reported in the country.
And it’s not just soft drugs like marijuana, heroin and party drugs like LSD and MDMA too were popular. A 2018 sample survey in Thrissur among professional college students (done by the Kerala police) suggested that 40 per cent of them, including girls, had tried illegal drugs at least once. The state-sponsored ‘Kaval’ project for ‘rehabilitation of children in conflict with law’, launched in 2017, has so far worked with 1,056 addicted school students. “It’s an explosive situation, drug abuse will hit our society hard. Constant surveillance and support is the only way to fight the menace,” says P. Vijayan, Inspector General of Police and nodal officer for the Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force.
Police estimates suggest that 85 per cent of the addicts are under 25. “We have launched ‘Operation Monsoon’ to make campuses drug-free. All known drug traffickers are being monitored,” says K. Chandrapal, deputy excise commissioner, Ernakulam Range.
Excise department sources say there are two reasons for the proliferating drugs scene since 2014; the previous United Democratic Front government’s decision to close down bars that year which led to a section of alcoholics moving to drugs and, second, the huge influx of migrant labour which has eased the path for many inter-state drug syndicates.
On the number of cases shooting up, officials point to the crackdowns by the excise department and police. Over 15,600 were arrested and 15,000 NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) cases were reported in the state in 2017 and the number only increased in 2018—16,273 cases and 17,319 arrests. The trend continues in 2019, up to May 7,439 have been booked in 6,960 drug-related cases.
The excise department had a major breakthrough on June 24 when they arrested George Kutty alias GK, in Thiruvananthapuram with Rs 20 crore worth of hashish oil. GK had shifted operations to Bengaluru in 2010 after being slapped with the Kerala Anti-social (Activities) Prevention Act (KAAPA). But just two weeks into his arrest, on July 4, he escaped from custody in Bengaluru, where he had been taken to collect evidence. The war on drugs is far from over in the state.