Kerala: Beware of candy drug', schools told

Kochi: The ‘candy’ drugs, found to be doing the rounds in schools in big cities like Delhi and Bangalore, is now being made available by drug cartels in the state, warned officials of the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB). “We’ve issued an alert against drugs such as ‘Strawberry Pop Rocks.’   These are actually coloured versions of methamphetamine – an ecstasy drug. We’re now focusing on the new threat during drug-awareness classes being conducted at regular intervals in schools. The students are instructed not to consume candies given by strangers or even friends,” said NCB (Kerala) superintendent Venugopal G. Kurup.

The officer said the department had  effected seizure of drugs such as methamphetamine and mephedrone in different colours, including from Kochi. “We suspect the coloured drug can be mixed with the candy to make it look like a regular strawberry sweet. A probe with the help of schools authorities is on,” the officer said. 'Strawberry Pop Rocks' is a kid-favoured confection that fizzles in the mouth. The authorities fear drugs in its forms might fool children and teens into mistakenly perceiving it as candy.

Last week, the Kochi city police seized amphetamine, known as 'the dead drug,' the first such instance in the state and arrested a Kozhikode native suspected to be a member of an international drug mafia.  "Amphetamine is the base compound for making other popular psychotropic party drugs such as ecstasy and meth crystals and the seizure shows the smuggling in of new drugs into the city through Goa," a Shadow Police officer said.

The Ernakulam district logged over 1400 cases under the NDPS Act in the first seven months of this year as against 1389 cases recorded over the whole of 2016. Kochi city alone witnessed 586 cases in seven months as against 225 in the previous year. The excise department lodged a total of 3486 NDPD cases from May 2016 to March 2017 across the state.