Meow meow menace: Users turn peddlers in Pune, chemical factories churn out large quantities

As per data provided by Pune’s Anti Narcotics Cell, an increasing number of seizures of Mephedrone have been reported in the past three years. In 2021, Pune police had seized 465 gm Mephedrone worth over Rs 43 lakh in 21 cases, and had arrested 25 suspects.

In 2022, the police seized 1.615 kg Mephedrone worth Rs 2.46 crore in 34 cases and arrested 53 suspects. This year till August, as much as 2,308 kg Mephedrone worth Rs 4.61 crore has been seized in 29 cases and 41 suspects have been arrested so far. Of the total 84 cases of seizures of Mephedrone since 2021, in 24 cases the drug seized was in commercial quantity, which is more than 50 grams.

Police say over these three years, the price of one gram of mephedrone in the illegal market also rose from over Rs 9,000 in 2021 to Rs 15,000 in 2022, and close to Rs 20,000 in the present year, indicating an increase in demand for synthetic stimulants.

“A large number of Mephedrone peddlers arrested till now also use the drugs. Most of these people are aged below 30, a large chunk of whom are students and young professionals. Probes have revealed that they started using drugs and later started peddling drugs to sustain their own expensive drug habit. There are specific areas in Pune from where most peddlers have been arrested, pointing to a high rate of consumption of the drug in these areas. Our teams have made meticulous effort to build an intelligence network in these and other areas to keep a tab and crackdown against the spread of this dangerous intoxicant,” said Senior Inspector Vinayak Gaikwad from the Anti Narcotics Cell.

Another worrying pattern that emerged from the investigation by the Anti Narcotics Cell of Pune City police is about the manufacturing of the Mephedrone. “In all past cases, it has come to light that Mephedrone was manufactured in chemical factories in Maharashtra and neighbouring states. These factories operate as manufacturing units of various industrial chemicals and also have setups to synthesize manufacturing Mephedrone. Such plants have been raided in industrial areas of Ranjangaon and Kurkumbh in Pune district in the past. In some recent cases, the seized mephedrone has originated from such chemical factories in and around Mumbai, Thane and in Madhya Pradesh,” said an officer from Pune City police.

While one gram of cocaine too costs close to Rs 20,000 like mephedrone, the latter is more easily available because of its source of manufacturing. “Mephedrone is replacing cocaine as a high-end party drug,” said another investigator.

Inspector Sunil Thopte from Pune’s Anti Narcotics Cell said, “In the distribution network of Mephedrone, peddlers have pre-decided persons of contact who get supplies from the manufacturing units, and hand over the required quantities. The peddlers then get the drugs to Pune by car or trains. It is next to impossible to detect the transported quantities unless we have specific intelligence inputs about the route and vehicle of the transport or suspects.”

Officials said that in most of the Pune cases, peddlers have received drugs from distributors in Mumbai and areas nearby, who have procured the drugs from chemical factories in the same region.

The Indian Express spoke with two counsellors at de-addiction facilities in Pune who have observed that while Mephedrone is being reported as one of the often used drugs in the last two years, they have not observed a rise in cases of patients coming to them with specific issues with specific addiction to Mephedrone.

Mephedrone, which has various street names such Meow Meow, White Magic, M-Cat and Drone, is a synthetically manufactured stimulant of the amphetamine and cathinone category.

According to the laboratory and scientific services portal of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), “Cathinone, the principal active ingredient in leaves of the khat plant also known as catha edulis, can be considered as the prototype from which a range of synthetic cathinones have been developed. Synthetic cathinones appeared in drug markets in the mid 2000s. In 2007, reports of Mephedrone or 4-methylmethcathinone use emerged.”The portal also states that Mephedrone was reportedly first synthesised in 1929, and that synthetic cathinones act predominantly as central nervous system stimulants. Stimulants mediate the actions of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, mimicking effects of traditional drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy.”

Till early 2010s, the drug was not included in the contraband list under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. But multiple seizures of large quantities of the drug and rising instances of its consumption as a narcotic in big cities, prompted authorities to add it to the list in 2015.

The Police in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad have in the recent past conducted multiple seizures of Meow Meow suggesting that the contraband is among the highly used drugs in Pune and surrounding areas. In April this year, in a major drugs haul, the Anti Narcotics Cell had seized around 1.1 kg of Mephedrone Meow Meow worth more than Rs 2.2 crores, arrested two persons and detained a minor.