igh-end mind-altering drugs seem to have found a niche market in Kerala, according to a State police anti-narcotic team.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Josey Cherian, a veteran drug offence investigator attached to the wing, says LSD, a mind-altering hallucinogenic drug, tops the list.
In the past year, the unit has stumbled upon absorbent paper strips, or “blotters” in drug parlance, that hold the LSD or “acid” residue. The drug is often orally ingested.
Mr. Cherian says the confiscated LSD blotters carry attractive brand names such as Scorpion, Shiv, and Om. The drug had been found in the possession of a few well-educated and academically successful youth.
The suspects had bought the drug for less than Rs.250 a “blotter” from unidentified sources in Goa. The police have learnt from them that “acid” also finds its way into Kerala in sugar cubes and in liquid form.
The colourless and odourless drug could also be sent in crystal form and also as stickers on envelopes.
The drug’s inconspicuous form makes its chance detection almost impossible, he says.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Intelligence, P. Vijayan, who heads the team, says home-grown mushrooms with psychedelic compounds, known in drug argot as “magic mushrooms,” are also finding its way into Kerala. The mushroom, which reportedly grows wild in the Nilgiris, fetches up to Rs.600 for a dozen in the local market.
The patrons
He says the patrons of high-end drugs are mostly well-heeled urban youth and white-collar professionals. Information on its peddling and use in Kerala is still sketchy.
The police goal is to find out whether the LSD is made in illegal laboratories in the country or sourced from abroad.
They are also investigating whether Kerala, with its huge emigrant population, is a “transit point” for LSD or the “end point” itself.
Drug abuse
Psychiatrist Mohan Roy, who heads the government de-addiction centre at the Government Medical College Hospital here, says there has been a perceptible increase in the number of people seeking treatment for narcotic drug abuse in the past two years.
He says perhaps the low availability of liquor might have caused the noticeable shift in addiction patterns.
Abuse of marijuana and prescription drugs, chiefly intravenously administered analgesics, is on the rise.
The drug being used by well-educated and academically successful youth,
say investigators
