Visakhapatnam is already known to be the gateway for marijuana or ganja that is rampantly cultivated in the Agency areas of the district. The cultivated ganja is dried in the hills and mainly shipped from the city to various destinations across the country.
The ‘Sheelavathi’ variety of ganja, grown in the cool climes of the Agency areas of the Eastern Ghats, is in demand pan India and this has given Visakhapatnam a prominent place in the map of the drug lords, across the country right from Goa to Bengaluru and Hyderabad and from Delhi to Kolkata.
Being freely available, getting a few grams of the weed for personal consumption or for peddling a few kilograms is no big deal, especially for youngsters, who can just zip down to the Agency in a fast bike or car and procure the requirement.
More importantly, now the weed is crushed and processed to extract hashish oil, which is said to have more intoxicating properties and also can be smuggled easily, especially at a time when checking and enforcement has been stepped up.
But this free access to ganja has given a different twist to the tale in recent times. The weed is exchanged for some real hard stuff such as cocaine, LSD, MDMA, crystal meth and other hallucinating drugs.
The network of the local users, especially youth and students, who have turned into drug peddlers, to fund their vices, have increased. They now have access to people dealing in high-end stuff in other cities and importing cocaine, LSD or MDMA or other drugs, have become easy.
The mode of transportation ranges from personally transporting them or using different forms of courier and e-commerce sites, said a senior police officer.
But so far, it has been found that the quantity being smuggled is in small quantities.
But there is no guarantee that this ‘small’ could become big, as the dealers or the kingpins in the big cities always look for newer avenues and fresh faces to expand their network, said the officer.
The first case of seizure of LSD or MDMA was in April 2019, when the City Task Force (CTF) had busted a rave party and had arrested about five people. Most of the arrested were from higher echelon of the society and they sourced the drugs from places such as Goa and Bengaluru by using the Dark Web.
The payments were also made in bitcoins. Thereafter, the COVID pandemic had struck and the duties and priorities of the enforcement agencies were redefined. But in the last three months, the agencies, including the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB), has booked at least four cases and in all the cases small quantities of high-end drugs were seized, as per the agencies.
In all the cases, the persons arrested were again from well-to-do families and included at least four engineers or engineering students and young professionals, including a medical doctorm and at least two young women. And in all the cases, the drugs were sourced from cities such as Hyderabad or Bengaluru.
Highly addictive
All drugs such as cocaine, MDMA or crystal meth are highly addictive and they affect the central nervous system.
Crystal meth, which is also known as ‘ice’ or ‘glass,’ is very dangerous and can damage the internal parts of the body and the consumer can land up with severe psychological problems, said senior psychiatrist and former HoD of Government Hospital of Mental Care N.N. Raju.
The medical fraternity and those dealing with mental health issues, feel that the enforcement agencies should be proactive and nip this menace at its bud.
Specialised unit
A few police officers feel that the time has come to strengthen a specialised unit like CTF or create a new one, which would concentrate primarily on narcotics.
Published - February 06, 2022 12:38 am IST
