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Rohit Wadhwaney in New Delhi
Why drugs? The reply from a large number of boys and girls in Delhi varies from "it's different" to "good to get stoned" and "it's a walk in the clouds".
That the malaise runs deep is revealed in the telling statement of a drug dealer: "Alcohol is not the way to socialise any more -- drugs have taken its place. It gives them (youth) a better high."
Samir, 18, first-year student in a top Delhi college, is aware that the poisonous smoke is killing him slowly, but doesn't feel terribly guilty about doing drugs.
"They are just a way to get high. It's about happiness. I just want to feel different," he told Indo-Asian News Service.
He believes youngsters like him are into drugs because they are banned. "What is the point of banning them? Anything banned attracts attention and youngsters feel it is something big. Cigarettes kill many more people than drugs, why aren't they banned?"
The arrest of Niraj Wadhera, the owner of the luxury hotel Hans Plaza, and his disclosures last week, police say, have exposed a web of drug trafficking in Delhi.
Samir says banned drugs like hash, marijuana, cocaine and opium are so easily available that it is not surprising that the "trend" is spreading.
Official sources say drug dealers sell 10 to 15 kilos of marijuana every week with a "turnover of at least Rs 50,000".
Beggars, with broken legs and missing hands, seated on wheelchairs outside a temple in Connaught Place in central Delhi or at slums across the capital supply drugs.
"All you have to do is mouth mahol banana hai (I want to create an ambience) -- the password," reveals an addict.
Delhi University final year student Geeta, 20, says: "My friends and I buy the stuff from Govindpuri slums (south Delhi). These drugs are supposed to be banned. See how easily we get them."
Maria, 17, student of a south Delhi school, cajoles her "guy" friends to get her weed from Paharganj, a congested area in the heart of the capital dotted with hundreds of cheap hotels frequented by foreign backpackers.
Maria, who in the past has bought hash from a parking lot near her school, says: "It's not safe for girls to go there. I feel good when I get stoned, so I ask boys to go. Hash is not very harmful. But who cares?"
A Delhi health ministry official says: "A few rehabilitation programs are on in the city for drug addicts. A number of non-governmental organisations are also doing their, but the police are not doing their job properly.
A police inspector says: "We know it is happening, but these peddlers are so well-informed that they get to know about raids beforehand. We are never able to seize anything. We need people's help."
Experts say it will take more than just law to weed out drugs.
Pramila Kapur, director of the Delhi-based NGO Integrated Human Development Services Foundation, says: "Youngsters are turning to drugs for a few reasons -- wrong company and the urge to try everything that they are restricted from.
Indo-Asian News Service
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