The District police have launched a special drive against drug abuse among youth and students and formed special team to bust the ‘network’ which make available drugs to the younger generation.
Acting on specific inputs that youngsters and students were falling victims to drug abuse in the district and a ‘network’ was active in supplying drugs and syringes to the addicts, Superintendent of Police Omprakash Meena launched the special drive, a few days ago and formed Serious Crime Squad special team to bust the network.
After the special drive, police caught at least two ‘victims’ of drug abuse while they were self injecting drugs and launched an investigation. They were questioned about the network which supplied the drugs, police said. Initial investigation revealed that the addicts diluted Tide 40 and Nitrazepam tablets in water and injected using syringes.
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The tablets were freely available in pharmacies and sold without prescriptions though medical practitioners said that they should be sold strictly on prescriptions. An office bearer of the Ramanathapuram Districts Chemists and Druggists Association said pharmacies should have licence to sell the drugs but the two tablets were available in almost all the pharmacies in the district and sold without prescriptions, he said.
The SP said he would write to the association to strictly follow the rules for selling the drugs. Stating that the police launched crackdown on drug traffickers, he said a woman from Paramakudi was arrested on charges of possessing two kg of ganja, a couple of days ago and an accused in Kilakarai for possessing about eight kg of ganja on Thursday.
He said the police sub-divisions have been asked to prepare list of drug traffickers, after which, habitual traffickers, who faced more than two or three cases would be identified and detained under the Goondas Act. As there has been spurt in chain snatching and house breaking cases during the last fortnight, the police have launched special drive after taking the list 33 ‘pro-active’ suspects, he said.
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Chain snatching were reported from women who slept outside their houses or inside after keeping the doors open, when there were power failures. Police distributed awareness pamphlets to the public and advised them not to wear jewels while sleeping.