Kerala has a drug problem: 300% jump in cases over six years; arrests increase 90%

While the cases have been steadily going up since 2016, only to witness a dip in the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, the 2022 numbers have gone up sharply.

An analysis of Excise data shows that the number of persons arrested for cases under the NDPS Act grew 87.47 per cent between 2016 and 2022 — from 3,217 to 6,031 – while the number of cases registered in the same period went up by 104 per cent. This, when the number of raids recorded only a marginal increase — from 1,39,366 in 2016 to 1,44,200 in 2022.

NDPC cases registered by police

Kerala has a drug problem: 300% jump in cases over six years; arrests increase 90%

The cases registered by the Excise department under the NDPS Act too show a steady rise from 2016, with 2019 recording the highest numbers in over six years.

Both the police and Excise departments handle drug offences under the tough NDPS Act, with the quantum of punishment depending on the quantity of drugs seized.

Additional Director-General Police and Excise Commissioner S Ananthakrishnan said the steady rise in drug-related cases in Kerala is a factor of both “strict enforcement and raids” and easier access to the contraband. “Accessibility of synthetic drugs such as MDMA and LSD has increased. Youngsters are now aware about the availability of synthetic drugs. There is also peer pressure to explore these drugs,” he told The Indian Express.

In October last year, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in Mumbai arrested Vijin Varghese, MD of the Kochi-based Yumito Foods, after seizing 50.2 kg of cocaine worth Rs 502 crore from a container carrying imported fruits. He was also involved in a related case in which methamphetamine and cocaine worth Rs 1,476 crore were found in cartons of oranges imported from South Africa by his company.

On March 18 last year, the Excise Department seized 165 kg of ganja from Kerala’s Palakkad district and arrested two persons who allegedly sourced the contraband from Andhra Pradesh. In August last year, two persons were arrested in the same district with hashish oil worth Rs 5 crore.

Earlier this month, the ruling CPI(M) in Alappuzha district cracked the whip on party councillor A Shanavas and his aides in connection with the seizure of banned tobacco products worth Rs 1 crore from a truck.

Data shows that the recreational drug MDMA has found a market in Kerala over the last seven years — while in 2016, the Excise department recorded no seizures of MDMA, 7,775.425 gm of the drug was seized by the department in 2022, the highest haul over the last six years.

Another recreational drug, methamphetamine, first figured on the radar of the Excise department in 2021, when it seized 88.806 gm of the drug. The haul of the highly addictive drug spiked to 2,432.483 gm in 2022.

While there was a fall in the quantity of ganja seized in 2022 over the previous year, seizures of heroin, charas and hashish have gone up.

Cases registered under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, related to banned tobacco products, have also spiked in recent years — from 45,756 such cases recorded by the Excise department in 2016 to 86,114 in 2022.

Commissioner Ananthakrishnan said that while drugs reach Kerala from across the country, “Bengaluru and Goa remain major hubs from where the drugs are sourced’’. A senior police officer said cannabis has been finding its way into the state from Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

A study conducted by Kerala Excise Department showed that cannabis is the main drug used by teenagers. It said 46 per cent of the surveyed teenagers used drugs more than once a day.