Synthetic drugs making inroads into Kullu valley

Kullu, January 8

Synthetic drugs are becoming a rage among tourists in the Kullu valley. Sources revealed that availability of various synthetic drugs like heroin, smack, cocaine, etc, is on the rise in the valley.

According to the police, 18.108 gm of MDMA, 17 vials of diazepam injection, 0.018 gm of LSD, one LSD paper and 13 gm of brown sugar was seized in 2022 while 55 LSD papers and 1.079 gm of MDMA was seized in 2021. However, charas seizure decreased from 286.38 kg in 2021 to 116.06 kg in 2022. Over 1 kg of heroin was also seized in the district in 2022.

Earlier, foreigners and persons from other states were arrested with synthetic drugs, but recently many local peddlers have also been nabbed.

The rise in the number of cases of seizure of synthetic drugs in the valley is alarming. The valley has already gained notoriety for charas cultivation and now with the onset of synthetic drugs, the situation had worsened here.

Kullu SP Gurdev Sharma said in order to eliminate the network of heroin smugglers, a special team of the local police had arrested 23 foreign nationals since July 2019, 17 of which are of African origin. He said the team was keeping a vigil on the trafficking of synthetic drugs in the district.

The SP said the police were probing all aspects of the drug trade to unfold the involvement of mafia and curb the menace. He claimed that most of the synthetic drugs were smuggled from other outside the country and the police were conducting a thorough investigation to trace the international drug routes.

As per the data provided by the police for the past five years, 990 kg charas, 12.46 kg heroine, 18.24 gram cocaine, 24.23 gram MDMA, 678 LSD papers, 84 gram liquid LSD, 16 gram brown sugar, 2.4 gram smack, 2 gram methadone, 15 Ecstasy tablets and various other contrabands like ganja, hashish, banned capsules etc had been seized in Kullu.