CHENNAI: A vast majority of drug traffickers themselves stay away from the potent substances and yet knowingly enter the business as it is a quick way of earning money to fund a lavish lifestyle, a recent study of 384 inmates in TN prisons has found.
The study also indicates that one in every five inmates surveyed was at least a graduate, while only 8% were uneducated. Only 2% were unemployed, with at least 40% either working in private firms or involved in some business.
The details form a part of the PhD thesis by A Murugesan, a senior TN Prisons department official and a doctoral candidate in the criminology department of University of Madras, whose project studied 165 convicts and 219 undertrials implicated for trafficking or possession of drugs like ganja, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and tablets. Murugesan successfully defended his thesis on Monday in the presence of his guide, Professor M Srinivasan, and a panel of experts.
As per his analysis, 71% of the respondents stayed away from drugs themselves, indicating their awareness about its addictive effects. Around 42% entered the trade to improve their standard of living — the most important among all reasons. While getting out of poverty was cited as the reason by 36%, around 14% were in it for self-consumption.
The lure of big money in drugs ensures that even those who get out of jail return to the trade; the study shows that over 20% of the respondents were arrested earlier, with 10% being arrested over 15 times.
“The research also found that 47% of respondents were aged 21-35. Most of them were well educated, good at studies and did not show delinquent behaviour. This is a big difference when compared to property offenders,” Srinivasan said.
With huge demand for drugs from people of different strata of society, the business is termed as ‘high risk, high reward’, say officials.
Indicating the scale of profits in the business, a senior official said this is what inspired a few youth in Chennai to set up a meth cooking lab last year. “An investment of a few lakhs can be doubled or tripled in no time. A gram of meth can fetch around Rs 10,000, whereas the street price of cocaine, trafficked from African or South American countries, can go up to Rs 15,000,” the official said.
Moreover, this is why law enforcement agencies take a keen interest in probing the financial trail of those involved in drug cases. “There is evidence of traffickers having invested in hotels, buying land and constructing villas,” an official said.