Hyderabad: You can’t run, and you can’t hide if you are doing drugs at your New Year’s Eve bash this time, be it at a pub, a resort, or at your private gathering. For the first time, law enforcement agencies in the city will be coming “armed” with hi-tech drug testing kits, which will enable them to pin down drug users on the spot.
“We have procured Dräger Drugcheck 3000, a device that can find out within minutes if a person has consumed drugs,” Director of Telangana State Anti-Narcotics Bureau (TSNAB), Sandeep Shandilya, told Hyderabad Chronicle. An on-site urine testing equipment from Abbot, which will provide a comprehensive report about drug use, has also been procured.
“We have about 50 such devices and more will be coming soon. With these devices, we will be conducting on-site checks at farmhouses, pubs, resorts, and any other place where New Year’s Eve parties are being held, depending on intelligence inputs,” says Shandilya.
The Dräger 5000 and Thermostatic handheld narcotics analyser from TrueNarc are also being made available to policemen.
Instant results
While the Dräger 5000 will check saliva samples and provide accurate results immediately, the Thermostatic device will help pick up traces of drugs from various objects like tables, washbasins, and door handles.
“It’s just like the breath analysers for alcohol. Earlier, we had to take blood and urine samples and wait for almost a month for the Forensic Science Laboratory to give its report. But with these latest devices, we will catch drug users instantly and without any hassle,” explains the senior IPS officer of the 1993 batch.
Women constables will be stationed at various party venues to check women party-goers.
Cases will be registered against identified drug users there and then, and they will have to undergo sessions at de-addiction camps. “We will be informing the parents (of drug users) as well,” the top cop says.
Focus on control
Citing a 2019 report, Sandeep Shandilya says there are about 30,000 drug users in Hyderabad and its surroundings.
“This refers to users of hard drugs like cocaine, MDMA, etc,” he says, adding that strict vigilance will ensure that the drug situation does not get out of hand in Telangana.
“In countries like the US, marijuana has been legalised because law enforcement agencies are unable to curb the rampant use. Things have gone out of hand there. We do not want something like that to happen here,” he says. He also cites the example of Switzerland which is mulling legalising cocaine.
“The cocaine available in Switzerland is of pure quality and the authorities there are finding it difficult to control the rampant use,” says Shandilya, who is hopeful of nabbing more drug dealers in the run-up to New Year’s Eve.
