There is a steady rise in the circulation of psychoactive drugs in the city mainly among youth, including students and IT professionals, according to drug enforcement agency sleuths in Bengaluru mainly the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). Rave parties and online sale of contraband, including ganja, is suspected to have risen in the last few years.
Banned psychedelic substances, mainly Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), popularly known as acid, and Methylenedioxy-Methamphetamine (MDMA), commonly called the ecstasy, are being peddled with ease in the city among youth who are mostly working professionals. Statistics on seizure by the NCB and the Bengluru City Police in the last three years, point out an escalation in LSD, MDMA, cocaine and the abundantly available cannabis.
According to NCB sources, LSD and MDMA drugs have turned popular in the Bengaluru party scene like never before. “A doze of LSD available in paper blots or spread on sugar cubes, brought into the city mainly from Goa, has turned common substance of use in parties. While LSD is for the high, MDMA is used simultaneously for energy and stamina to party all night long. We have information that small groups, including foreign nationals mainly Africans, are peddling the substance,” says an officer with national agency’s Bengaluru wing.
In 2015 till date, the NCB booked five cases involving a seizure of scores of LSD blots and in its powdered form, notably one bust near Hennur Bande on May 7 in which six Nigerian nationals, including a woman, were nabbed. “An acid drop can cost you up to Rs. 7,000 if bought in parties in the city which are often discretely announced via social media (including, marketplaces on the ‘deep web’) on the venue and sometimes of the genre of music played mainly psytrance,” adds Niranjan, an city-based IT engineer.
De-addiction and rehabilitation expert Pratima Murthy of NIMHANS terms drug abuse mainly among youth in Bengaluru as a “worrying trend”. “In the last three years, these has been an increase in people seeking medical help following polysubstance abuse, including users of heroine and cannabis. Patients largely are youngsters who often experiment with drugs and turn addicts,” Dr. Murthy added.
