Two months ago, British backpacker Anna Bartlett came to Kullu in northern India in search of peace, tranquillity - and the world's strongest hash. A week later, her battered body was washed up in a river. Jason Burke retraces her steps to discover why murder, corruption and drug trafficking are flourishing in the foothills of the Himalayas The Observer Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, is a week away and there are dozens of stalls along the rough edges of the main road into the Kullu Valley. Each is half obscured by gold or crimson tinsel and grubby children. [continues 3877 words]
PARAMAKUDI (Tamil Nadu): Eight persons from Tamil Nadu, who went to Malaysia in search of jobs, are facing the gallows there, a human rights group said on Friday. According to Ramanathapuram district human rights Kazhagam organiser, Murugesan, eight persons from Ramanathapuram and Sivaganga districts of Tamil Nadu - Elangovan, Selvam, Sathyendran, Tiruselvam, Abimanyan, Gunasekharan, Varadharajan and Saravanan - had gone to Malaysia in search of jobs and had stayed together in a house at Kuala Lumpur . Police raided the house on April 25, 2003 . Though they did not seize any incriminating things in the portion of the building the Indians had occupied, they seized dreaded narcotic drugs from the portion where the owner was living. [continues 93 words]
VADODARA - Once a camp for the British army, Fatehganj was turned into a residential locality when the empire collapsed. Those days few people lived here. Gradually, small shops sprouted, some more houses came up and horse-carts frisked on the muddy stretch of road providing the vital link to railway station. This was in the 1950s. Fifty-three years down the line, Fatehgunj has undergone complete transformation. Restaurants, hostels, cafes, a huge park and a university campus have turned the once sleepy pocket into a lively place. [continues 418 words]
The 1970s music scene fairly reeked with big guitars, even bigger hair, giggling groupies and casual drug use. During the 1980s, there was a strong belief that the destruction of the mind and body through deliberate drug use for non-medical purposes was wrong. That is no longer the case and drug abuse appears to be almost normal, sometimes even fashionable in the city too. Popular music is one of the key influences on young people. Paul McCartney is quoted to having said that marijuana was the impetus for the creative force behind the Beatles' album "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." [continues 391 words]
The money and power does not give the thrills anymore and there is a need for uninterrupted elation and rapture. The rich socialite has found its answers in the free flowing drugs in their hip and happening parties Gone are the days of opium, heroine, ganja and Alprax. The hottest craze nowadays is cocaine, ecstacy, acid and hashish (marijuana). The business has spiralled to over Rs. 1,000 crore a year where all the substances dealt in are banned and obviously no taxes paid. The clientele is a small close knit high profile ultra rich family of south Delhi that includes many designers, kids from affluent families, models, businessman bored with their monotonous lifestyle and lonely housewives. [continues 1020 words]
VADODARA: Smoke, dope and keep fit. Enter the new Vadodara, where the Generation Next is ready to go to any extent to maintain the lean, mean and sexy look. Forget gyms and workouts. That's passe. The new and alarming trend to reduce your calorie intake is to smoke and indulge in drugs - an easy way to drastically cut down your appetite, and thus the fastest way to get slim. What was once associated with junkies is fast becoming a fad among young women wanting to make a mark on the glamour circuit. [continues 469 words]
MUMBAI: Kartik knows a beggar at a suburban railway station who "gets 'things' cheap". The 15-year-old from a middle class family is addicted to anything that relaxes him. "It could be grass, heroin, marijuana.. anything," he says. Kartik says his friends from his coaching class are also hooked on to drugs. "We have to study so much-I'm constantly worried about whether I will be able to score well in my exams. What will my parents say if I don't?" he says anxiously. [continues 431 words]
It may remain a debatable issue whether life imitates art or vice-versa. This time around, one thing is for sure, life is moving a step ahead of art. Going by Ekta Kapoor TV serials (if only that could be termed art) it is scheming men and women who keep detective agencies occupied by their insatiable depths of suspicion and distrust. In real life, suspicion has moved a step further. Now parents pay detective agencies to keep an eye on their errant babas and babies. [continues 335 words]
NEW DELHI : The game's over for drug sellers near north campus, if the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) has its way. A three-member team of plainclothes policemen, accompanied by DUSU members, carried out inspections at several key places on Wednesday night, where drugs are believed to be sold. The areas inspected include Majnu ka Tila, the Malkaganj bus stand near Hansraj College , Outram Lane near Mukherjee Nagar and spots near the Tibetan Monastery, Azadpur, and Roop Nagar. "It's known that drugs can be easily purchased from these areas," said DUSU president, Rohit Chowdhry. The union has also been in touch with the north district police to discuss the issue regarding safety of students, especially women, in the wake of a series of rapes in the city. [end]
ONE in-charge superintendent of police, one inspector, one sub-inspector, four constables and an office without a signboard near Red Hills - that's the staff strength of the Narcotics Cell. Although the cell will shift to a new swanky office - with a signboard of course - near Lakdi-ka-pul after two months, the state of affairs needs a makeover. The state has sent a detailed proposal to the central government asking for more resources and staff. But like everything else, this proposal is lying in the cans. Talking to the cops, everything looks hunky dory in the state, but the number of cases related to drug trafficking (mostly ganja), have peaked in the last couple of years. While in 2000 it was 271, in 2001 the number touched 675. A whopping 1,119 such cases were registered in 2002. [continues 293 words]
Kashmir's Growing Narcotics Trade Is Flourishing In Areas Where Militants Are Most Active. BANDIPORA, INDIA - Manzoor Ahmed is a very happy police chief. Just a month ago, his investigators confiscated four kilos of heroin, tucked into the back of an ordinary truck carrying apples. But behind his proud exterior, Mr. Ahmed is worried about the dangers that narcotics are starting to pose in his little corner of this Himalayan valley. For one thing, he knows that he can catch only a fraction of the smugglers. And he suspects that the most active narcotics smugglers are well-armed Kashmiri militants, who use narcotics as a business to pay for their violent activities, and who have a tradition of fighting to the death. [continues 945 words]
Since the incidents of September 11, 2001, the US has launched a special drive to ferret out the sources funding for terrorism. Yet, its actual policies work to the contrary. It is, in fact, the single most important money laundering destination in the world. There are two important types of money laundering. One concerns money which derives from business internationally accepted as being criminal - such as narcotics or terrorism. The other concerns funds from activities, such as tax evasion, recognised as criminal only in a particular country. Yet money concealed in the business of narcotics or terrorism is laundered in much the same way as illegal flight capital. In their movement and concealment, the funds of such international crime are gene-rally indistinguishable from capital flight. [continues 774 words]
I landed up at what I thought was going to be the best night of my life. Instead, I wondered why and how do people enjoy such activities. Thinking that Rave parties were cool was my biggest mistake. It was a comedy show throughout... 'Rave for Dummies' reads his blog which takes the uninitiated on a trip into Urban India's ongoing mega-party where Acid trips are the in-thing and XTC is the ABC of new age masti. "I went there hoping for some naked girls but there weren't any!!! No sphagetti tops, no mini skirts. They were dressed in psychedelic lungis," confesses the disillusioned lotus-eater. "There's this fundamental truth: It's easier to run from a police raid in your loose shorts than in a slinky tight number with high heels," he enlightens. [continues 1087 words]
First-time visitors to The Netherlands are surprised to note sharply-pointed cannabis-leaf symbols at coffee-houses and pubs; places often frequented by people lighting up or eating hash omelettes and drinking hash tea. The Dutch have a laissez-faire attitude to cannabis. Holland ignores personal possession of up to 30 grams of such substances as marijuana (the dried flower, or "ganja"), hashish (the dried resin, or "charas") and bhang (the dried leaf). When the EU opened internal borders, Holland started receiving weekend "potfans" from France, Belgium and Germany. In effect, Dutch liberality led to the Eurozone easing its stance vis-a-vis soft drugs, though users from other nations risk punishment. [continues 573 words]
HYDERABAD: Marijuana -- ganja in common parlance -- has come out of the closet. No more a clandestine trade, pan and cigarette shops are passe, the stuff is now openly sold from houses too. The reason: they have the tacit approval of the local cops, and some politicians too. In fact, a close relative of a minister too peddles ganja. To procure it, all one needs is the right contact. Sometimes, even that is not necessary, if one can bluff with a straight face. [continues 257 words]
NEW DELHI: It usually starts with an innocuous cigarette stolen out of dad's pack to strike a pose. To escape exam blues, to prove that you're with it and to be happening its necessary to be high. The gateway to drugs is getting lower by the day with increasing instances of abuse among schoolchildren. High on experimentation: "I come across about 10 children in a year who have used drugs," says Etishree Bhatti, counsellor, Delhi Public School (R K Puram). Preliminary findings of an ongoing study "Expressions" by VIMHANS in city schools, indicates 8 to 15 per cent schoolchildren have experimented with drugs. [continues 273 words]
"Sarva Vighnopa Shantaye." With most of the Ganesha statues now adorning the pandals, the prayaschit is over for the idol makers in Dhoolpet and they all are now confident that the Lord will save them from the cops and excise sleuths. And after a couple of days' rest, they will all go back to their original profession -- brewing country-made illicit liquor, popularly known as Gudumba, and rolling out ganja (marijuana). The same fingers that gave the Elephant God shape, will now rub Ganja to produce 'Hash-Oil'. Making the idols, they say, is a purgatorial ritual for them, in other words a sort of Pushkarams. [continues 292 words]
Ending The War On Drugs The illegal drug trade can only be curtailed if we legalise the industry, says Deepak Lal From the Andean countries -- Bolivia, Peru and above all Colombia -- to the Golden Crescent countries -- Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran -- to the Golden Triangle countries -- Myanmar, Thailand and Laos -- the US and the Western European war on drugs has created conditions for the actual or incipient failure of these states. This is because making drugs illegal has provided an immense incentive for illegal production in these states to feed the drug habits of a myriad Western consumers. The illegal profits are then used to fund arms, terrorism, and the promotion of extra legal 'institutions' which subvert the State. [continues 1268 words]
ANIL AGARWAL, SSP, Special Task Force, On STF's joint effort with the Narcotics department. Times of India: What was the role of the STF in helping the Narcotics Department crack down on the drug mafia operating here? STF is a broad based organisation that identifies and cracks down on mafia, organised crime and gangs that are operating in the state. The STF's role in the recent crack down on the drug mafia in UP, was to provide information to the Narcotics department through our intelligence services about the crime being organised in India. Owing to our technological backup, we can trace roots of crimes that take place in India and from there spread to neighbouring countries. [continues 299 words]
The University of Delhi under its department of Adult Continuing Education & Extension in collaboration with National Institute of Social Defence, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment conducted a five-day course on drug abuse prevention recently. The programme was meant for college NSS teachers, adult education functionaries and peer educators of DU. The aim was to sensitise the teachers and adult education functionaries on drug-abuse prevention and education. The course was divided into five parts: Drug use, drug abuse and drug dependence courses, symptoms and prevention of drugs, harm reduction, rehabilitation, counselling and family support, field visits in rehabilitation and de-toxication centre. [continues 553 words]
Till a narcotic toffee racket was swooped on and a couple of huge hauls of the drug consignments were made, not many knew of the existence of a 'high' terrain in the city landscape where munching the sugar-coated psychoactive substance was commonplace. Now that the curtains have been yanked off, the questions being raised are: How bad are those dope toffees? Can they lead to dependence? Even those working in areas of addiction concerns and rehabilitation in the city seem to have little insight into this particular toffee-chewing habit, which, it is learnt from police, is gaining in popularity among some groups of college students and has veterans in the Sowcarpet region. However, that the seized toffees contained Tetra hydro cannabinol (THC) is enough to ring the alarm bells. [continues 682 words]
The third most popular recreational drug after alcohol and tobacco, cannabis compounds have an interesting role cut out for them: protection of the brain against damaging effects of ageing. "Basic research is discovering interesting members of this family of compounds that have previously unknown qualities, the most notable of which is the capacity for neuroprotection," Prof Allen Thomson and colleagues wrote in Lancet Neurology. According to The Independent, the drug, as the aspirin of the 21st century, may help prevent degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntingdon's and motor neurone diseases although it distorts perception and affects short-term memory. [continues 155 words]
THENI APRIL 5. More than 20 persons were arrested and a majority of ganja plants on the Varushanadu and Megaamalai hills destroyed in a raid conducted by the Theni police today. According to the police, a 600-strong force, comprising PEW, NIB and police personnel, led by the District Superintendent of Police, A. Amal Raj, started the raid this morning at Varushanadu, Yanaigajam, near the Siruvilliputhu wildlife sanctuary, Vaaliparai, Malayali kudisai, Athi Oothu, Kodaali Oothu, Arasaradi, Bommarasapuram, Megamalai Aruvi and interior forests of Varushanadu hills. [continues 87 words]
Jaisalmer, Feb. 26 (Reuters): Rajesh Vyas loves his job with a passion, always uses his own product -- and sincerely promises you will not turn into an orange or see pink elephants. From a small wooden hut near the gate to the 850-year-old Golden Fort in Jaisalmer, one of the country's most popular tourist draws, Vyas and his brothers sell marijuana. Legally. Vyas' customers munch, slurp and smoke their way through about 30 kg of bhang every month in yoghurt drinks and fruit juices, cookies and chocolate, cigarettes and sweets, tea and sandwiches. [continues 376 words]
New Delhi: Dark smoke rose high from a large ''pyre'' on the banks of the Yamuna on Wednesday. In this ''funeral'', about 450 kg of drugs were burnt at the cremation ground near the Wazirabad bridge. The operation was supervised by Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) Delhi unit to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Hashish formed the major chunk (almost 90 per cent) of the disposed drugs, with charas and heroin amounting for the remaining portion. [continues 171 words]
Tomorrow isn't just another day. For, June 26 is the International Day Against Illicit Trafficking Of Drugs And Drug Abuse. To mark the occasion, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is all set to burn hundreds of kgs of ganja, hashish, opium and heroin on the banks of the Yamuna. But it is not only symbolism and a sense of occasion which the NCB has on its mind. ''With our godowns overflowing with narcotics, space is a problem for us. Besides, the chances of pilferage can't be ruled out," says a senior NCB official, "Subsequent to the disposal of 425 kg of drugs, including 400 kg of heroin, tomorrow, the pressure on our warehouses will ease out.'' [continues 143 words]
BANGALORE: Narcotic drugs like heroin, mandrax and other precursor drugs continue to be smuggled into India from Afganistan and Pakistan. India remains a transit point for the smuggling. However, the manufacture of these drugs in Afganistan, which is a prime source for heroin, has come down. According to statistics, in the year 2000, 320 tonnes of heroin was produced, whereas in 2001, only 30 tonnes were produced. However, the problem of drug traficking continued to be a problem both in the Golden triangle - Burma, Laos, Thailand and in the Golden Crescent - Pakistan, Iran and Afganisthan. [continues 219 words]
A deaf British charity worker jailed for 10 years in India for possessing 20 kilos of cannabis yesterday lost an appeal against his conviction. A High Court judge in Shimla, north of Delhi, rejected Ian Stillman's claim that his first trial was unfair. He was jailed last June after being arrested in the foothills of the Himalayas in August 2000 and charged with possessing the drug, which was discovered by Indian police in a bag with him in the back of a taxi. Stillman, 51, who has an artificial leg following a road accident, said he had never seen it before. [continues 450 words]
Fuel Extremism Today's terrorists are no more modern than their 11th century compatriots of Lebanon at the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. The father of that cult was one Hasan ibn-al-Sabbah, driven out of his country by the Persian monarch Malik Shah Jelal-eddin. A sinister enthusiasm drove Hasan into an almost inaccessible but wonderful valley in the mountains where, with the help of fellow-outlaws, he built a fortress which proved impenetrable for his enemies. He went on increasing the number of his followers through a bizarre method. Hasan would capture able-bodied youth, entertain them to lavish dishes enriched with a drug called Hashis in Arabic. As the captives would pass into a state of near-swoon, Hasan's assistants would transport them into a charming hidden dale. What would they see when they wake up? [continues 643 words]
NEW DELHI Indian anti-narcotics agents have heightened vigil at all entry points from Pakistan following reports that the Taliban had sent nearly 400 tonne of heroin out of Afghanistan since September. "We are on alert at all entry points from Pakistan. We have specific intelligence reports that the Taliban passed on all its drug stocks to Pakistan along with processing machinery and laboratory equipment," a senior anti-narcotics official told IANS. Under the Taliban regime, Afghanistan became the largest producer of opium and heroin and was said to be making almost 85 per cent of the opium produced world wide. [continues 475 words]
NEW DELHI: Three unrelated events in the past two months have ensured the volume of heroin and cocaine being pumped into Delhi, besides elsewhere in the country, has dropped significantly enough to trigger a steep price hike. Official estimates say Delhi alone has at least 50,000 chronic heroin users. The crisis in Afghanistan after the World Trade Center bombings is the latest event to have affected this market, a development which ironically has made the drug-busters' task of tracking operators even more difficult. [continues 491 words]
The arrest of hotelier Niraj Wadhera has re-emphasised that the drug scene in India is alive and kicking. While the lust for a high fuels the demand for drugs, greed for big bucks drives the supply. The impact is multi-dimensional, though. Notes World Drug Report 2000: "The drug problem has even broader implications for the spread of infectious diseases, corruption and financing of insurgents or terrorist groups." The common drugs of recreational use in India continue to be plant based drugs such as cannabis (in the form of marijuana, a cannabis herb, and hashish, a cannabis resin), opiates (opium and heroin), and cocaine, a coca derivative. "Heroin is particularly a favourite," says Dr Hemraj Pal, an assistant professor with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. Dr Pal practises at the AIIMS de-addiction centre. [continues 993 words]
NEW DELHI: Women are more than equal partners to men in the Capital's drug trade. In several pockets, they have even outdone their male counterparts in terms of trade volumes. At least 15 women drug dealers, some from affluent backgrounds, are said to be active in the city. They account for almost half the drug trade, estimated to have a turnover of Rs 100 crore. "Till two decades ago, most of them were operating as bootleggers from congested areas. But bigger profit margins and changing customer preference saw them graduating to the drug trade," said DCP narcotics D L Kashyap. [continues 213 words]
AIZAWL: The United States has provided Mizoram with equipment worth Rs 29.65 lakh to combat the menace of drug trafficking from the infamous Golden Triangle via Myanmar. The equipment, including three cars, three jeeps, three motorcycles, four digital cameras, four computers and ten radio handsets were handed over to the Mizoram excise department by the US Consul General Christopher J Sandrolini on May 17 in Kolkata, assistant commissioner of the state department L Hmunsanga said here on Saturday. The equipment was given by the US government through the Union Ministry of Finance, he added. [continues 124 words]
NEW DELHI, India (JP): The dangerous practice of needle-sharing among Intravenous Drug Users (IDUs), which has intensified the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in many countries, has been a major concern among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) all over the world. Many NGOs in Third World countries have been trying to eradicate this risky practice as much as their limited manpower and funds allow. Some have won support both from their government and community to implement full-scale Needle and Syringe Exchange Programs (NSEPs), while there are also NGOs that succeed in dispensing substitute drugs which can be taken orally. [continues 684 words]
KOLKATA: The Mizoram excise department, on Thursday, became the first Indian state agency to receive US governmental aid for combating drug trafficking. At a simple ceremony in Kolkata, Mizoram excise commissioner L Khiangte received part of the hardware from Robert Bruce Barnes, country attache of US Drug Enforcement Administration. Also present on the occasion was Sabra Thornton, coordinator, Regional Crime and Narcotics Affairs, US Embassy, New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, Robert Burnes said that usually such assistance is requisitioned by law enforcement agencies as a reaction to the menace. "We are extremely happy that the Mizoram government has reached out for assistance," Burnes remarked. He pointed out that the India-Myanmar border was a vulnerable point so far as drug-trafficking was concerned area and that Myanmar was fast emerging as the second-largest producer of heroin. It was also becoming a major producer of amphetamines. [continues 180 words]
SILIGURI: With Bangladesh border at a stone's throw and a "narcotics corridor" operating through the district, North and South Dinajpur districts have become a haven for international drug traffickers. The matter has become a concern for State police as well as the Border Security Force. On Wednesday, the North Dinajpore district police seized 500 gm of refined heroin from a North Bengal State Transport Corporation bus. The drug is priced at around Rs 50 lakh in the international market. According to district police superintendent A. K. Sharma, the police had a definite information about drug traffickers using NBSTC buses from the Raiganj depot of the NBSTC. [continues 401 words]
NEW DELHI, FEB. 20. Though the smuggling and abuse of stimulants and synthetic drugs in India is relatively recent, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has warned of a new trafficking route being carved out along the border with Myanmar in the most vulnerable areas of Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. The India-Myanmar border could become a major illicit drug producing area, the INCB said in its annual report, released by Ms. Renate Ehmer, UNDCP regional representative, here today. The two countries were concerned at the large seizures of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine along their border. [continues 439 words]
Last of the ancient hippies hold the fort as ecstatic young ravers inherit the beaches of India's `Empire of Hip' Rosie DiManno STAR COLUMNIST GOA, India - GROOOOOVY, man. Tie-dyed shirts, trance music, nudie parties on the beach, hookah pipes, Hare Hare Krishna Krishna, transcendental-ism, tantric sex, flower power, karma and the heady pleasures of dirt-cheap ganja. Along this coastline in southern India, the Age of Aquarius has never gone into eclipse. It was here, to these sand-dune beaches on the warm Arabian Sea, that legions of long-haired hippies made their tune-in/drop-out pilgrimage in the late 1960s and early '70s. [continues 2720 words]
PANAJI - The smell of drugs is in the Goan ambience now. Narcotic substances like charas, ganja, estassy, LSD and cocaine are playing a key role in building Goa as a hot tourist destination among a section of its young visitors and also those who put this place on the world drugs map in the first place. The tiny emerald on the west coast of the country, with its natural scenic beauty, attractive beaches, churches, temples, feasts and festivals, has over the years built up a reputation of an easy-drugs paradise. [continues 526 words]
Narcotics Anonymous, a fellowship offering recovery from drug addiction completed 17 years in Mumbai on September 8. Comprising entirely of addicts, this fellowship is unique in many ways. Using the simple principle that 'one addict can best understand and help another addict', Narcotics Anonymous (NA) has been instrumental in the recovery of hundreds of addicts in Mumbai. The past 17 years has seen hundreds of addicts, most of whom were hopeless, sick, tired and unemployable metamorphose into beautiful human beings - loving, caring and most of all honest. These also saw successful careers, responsible relationships, freedom and happiness in the lives of many addicts. [continues 187 words]
NOIDA: The Noida police will book under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act any chemists who sell potentially lethal narcotics and tranquillisers without proper prescriptions. The decision follows the death of a domestic help, Pritam Singh, in Sector 30. The death appears to have been due to an overdose of buprenorphine injections. Gautam Budh Nagar police chief Anand Kumar told The Times of India News Service that a search was on to trace the chemist who sold the synthetic opiate to Pritam Singh. Two vials of the injection were found among his belongings. [continues 134 words]
New Delhi - A city court acquitted four persons in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Prevention) Act case since the prosecution did not follow the prescribed rules while conducting the raid. Additional Session Judge Indermeet Kaur Kochhar, in her order, said: "The mandate of section 42 (1) and (2) has not been complied with and the secret information received has not been sent to the superior officers forthwith as per provisions of section 42 (2) of the NDPS Act. Since a mandatory provision has not been complied with, the accused persons are entitled to an acquittal on this ground alone". [continues 69 words]
Government Action On Combatting Drug Use And HIV Infection In India Has Been Very Little, Very Late, Writes Matt Wade Prem Singh is an injecting drug user living on the streets of India's capital, Delhi. Weeping sores mark his face, most of his hair has fallen out, and his knees are swollen beyond recognition - a symptom of tuberculosis. Singh, 21, started inhaling heroin when he was 10 but, two years ago - searching for a cheaper high - he started injecting low-grade heroin. [continues 769 words]
CHANDIGARH, JULY 10. The Punjab Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. B.R. Chawla, has said 53 per cent of the urban population and 48 per cent rural population in the State are addicted to one intoxicant or another. Tuberculosis, on an average, claimed the lives of 30 persons daily. Talking to presspersons here on Wednesday, he said drug addiction and use of other intoxicants were on the rise with school children increasingly falling victim. ``It is distressing to note that people had begun to give up intoxicants like alcohol and opium, only to start consuming deadlier drugs and medicines like phencydryl, corex, and proxyvon.'' [continues 436 words]
This comes as a grim reminder to all those who feel that material success is all that's important for family peace and happiness. Today, on International Anti-Narcotics Day, experts say that lack of communication in the family encourages youngsters to experiment with drugs. It's estimated that there are 2 lakh drug addicts in Mumbai. Of these, 1,20,000 use brown sugar, 40,000 use a mix of different drugs and another 40,000 are addicted to other substances like cough syrups and ink dilutors. [continues 491 words]
THE DELHI zonal unit of Narcotics Control Bureau has confiscated property worth over Rs 4 crore belonging to Abu Ala. This is the first time that the Delhi unit has confiscated the property of a narcotics dealer. Ala, one of the biggest narcotics dealers to have been arrested ran a heroin producing unit from the heart of the Capital. He exported the contraband to the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka. He was arrested by the NCB in November 1999. [continues 233 words]
NAMES OF some identified drug-traffickers have come up in the cricket match-fixing investigations. Investigators now believe that some of the money used to fix matches could have been generated from drug smuggling operations. While in CBI investigations Ratan Mehta has emerged a key point-man in fixing matches, records available with the Narcotics Control Bureau show that his father Surinder Mehta was one of top-most drug-traffickers of the country in the '70s and '80s. Surinder Mehta was even arrested from JFK International Airport in New York in the United States in 1981 when he was trying to smuggle in about 5 kilograms of high-grade heroin. He also figured prominently in the NCB watch-list. [continues 312 words]
BARAMULLA: Foreign mercenaries and young militants infiltrating into the Kashmir Valley from across the border are being armed, besides the sophisticated weapons, with a more lethal contraband: heroin. "Of late, in addition to AK-47 and UMGs, militants are now carrying heroin in polythene bags, with the stamp of Afghanistan on it," said Baramulla range DIG Dilbag Singh. He said a number of foreign mercenaries and Pakistan trained militants have been caught in Kupwara and Baramulla areas carrying heroin. "In Kupwara alone, four kg of heroin were recovered from militants last month." Dilbag Singh said, adding over the past three months several bags of heroin besides sophisticated weapons were recovered during encounters with militants trying to slip into India. [continues 360 words]
It's not what the doctor ordered. Sedatives being used to get a high, drugs being sold without a prescription. Admittedly, a bitter pill to swallow. Sedatives and tranquillisers are in great demand these days. So, what's new? They have a calming effect. They lull one into sleep. They have always been prescribed for medical reasons. Point taken. But sedatives and tranquillisers are disappearing off chemists' shelves as the rule rather than an exception. And health reasons have nothing to do with it. [continues 570 words]
Inside India
