KOCHI: The police and excise departments have found a growing unhealthy trend among school and college students of consuming synthetic drugs under the misconception that these would help them boost concentration during their studies. The police came to know about this while interrogating four students from a well-known engineering college who were arrested in connection with MDMA possession.
“It is a worrying fact that several students have started using synthetic drugs these days. In the earlier incidents, students were found to be using such drugs for their lasting effects. When we arrested a 20-year-old student of a well-known engineering college, she revealed that she started using the drugs to reduce her sleeping hours and spend more time on her studies,” said Abdul Salam K A, narcotic cell ACP of Kochi City police.
He added that students consume the drugs as a group. “Only a few students are consuming these alone. The students who were arrested in the NDPS Act case also revealed that a large number of them had been using drugs. It is a worrying situation for the law enforcement agencies as girls are also falling into the trap,” the ACP said.
According to the enforcement agencies, the number of students caught in drug use cases has been increasing exponentially. The data sourced from the Kochi City police shows that while 213 students in the age group of 18-24 were booked in NDPS cases in the whole of last year, 456 were arrested in the first five months of this year.
Meanwhile, the trend is also widespread in the Ernakulam Rural police limit, as 292 students have been booked in NDPS cases so far this year. The same last year was 240. Ernakulam Rural SP K Karthick said the drug mafia are misguiding students to get addicted to the drugs. “The number of students who started using drugs has been rising mainly after the lockdown period,” he said.
He also added that parents should take responsibility of monitoring their children. “Though the police and other agencies are carrying out campaigns across the state, parents should also take responsibility to keep their children away from drugs. The parents should monitor their activities. They can also approach the police for all help they need to make their children stop drug abuse,” he added.