Beware! You could fall prey to narcotics

If a stranger offers you ice-cream or juice, you may think umpteen number of times. But, if a friend offers you one, you may grab it the very second. That’s what a girl did in Bangalore when one of her friends offered her an ice-cream. In no time, she came to known as a drug addict.

Addressing a gathering of police officers at a programme organised to create awareness on illicit drug trafficking as part of International Day against drug abuse and trafficking, organised jointly by Sadhvi Foundation in association with city police and JSS Law College here on Wednesday, Police Commissioner K L Sudheer recalled a case he dealt with during his stint as DCP (East) in Bangalore.

A woman working in a bank approached Sudheer and complained about her daughter who was the living life of a recluse for the last past several months. The girl was the only daughter to banking employee couple. Sudheer asked the woman to check for unknown substances if any, in her daughter’s room. Following the officer’s advice, the woman searched her daughter’s room and found three packets of drugs, which were later confirmed by forensic science laboratory (FSL). When investigated further, it was discovered that the girl had fallen prey to narcotics, after she ate an ice-cream spiked with drugs offered by her friends from northern States.

Taking the case as an example, the police commissioner appealed to parents for having a watch and control over their wards. The officer said that peer pressure or vanishing values and customs were acting as catalysts to children losing respect for their parents.

The commissioner instructed the police, irrespective of crime, law and order and traffic wings to be vigil and effective in dealing with the fast spreading ‘narco terrorism’. He stressed on intelligence gathering in this regard.

The commissioner referred to a recent case in Mandi police limits where a youth who had taken to sniffing whiteners having toluene substance, turning out to be a serial killer. He had hacked five people to death.

C Maheshwaran of Sadhvi Foundation alleged that some of the scrap dealers in the city can be indirectly held responsible for forcing ragpickers to take to sniffing whiteners. The scrap dealers offered whiteners to every scrapdealer, who would later be seen collecting a sack full of scrap within 15 minutes.

Giving an account of drug addicts in the country, Maheshwaran said that there are two million chronic drug addicts and five crore non-chronic addicts consuming 1,000 kg of drugs, accounting for a transaction of Rs 50 crore per day.

DCPs Basavaraj Y Malagaththi (law and order) and K P Bheemaiah (crime and traffic), vice-principal of JSS Law College P Shivananda Bharathi were present.