(Source: Thinkstock) (Source: Thinkstock)

By: Rohit Alok

On Christmas Eve 2012, Adit(name changed)and his friend were driving through Worli looking to score some cocaine. They were given directions to a slum house, on top of a Worli hill. When they trudged down-they didn’t know they had just been handed Mephedrone, more commonly known as M-CAT in the sniffers’ market.

This was much before the Mumbai Police had started hunting for peddlers behind this drug, which is yet to be classified as psychotropic substances and specified in the Schedule of the Narcotics Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act).

With no classification in the schedule, the transaction of the drug still cannot be deemed. Rehabilitation centres across Mumbai and Thane estimate that this new drug has already begun having an adverse effect on the society, with teenagers as young as 14 found abusing this substance.

Newsline met Adit and a few others at a private facility situated on the outskirts of the city, established in 1995.That night when he was given the drug, he had barely even heard of it. It was then called the ‘zombie drug’. “The name was apt as everyone in the area had their shoulders drooped, backs hunched and their eyes wide open,” Adit recalls. He bought five grams of the powder that looked exactly like cocaine for Rs 5,000.

Mephedrone (4-Methylmethcathinone) commonly known as ‘Meow Meow’, is today the most difficult drug that Mumbai Police is battling, as it has approached the judiciary to get it banned.

Since Mephedrone is technically a legal substance, the Mumbai police believes that the substance is currently a rage among youngsters as it offers all the effects that the generation looks for; speedy weight loss, lowered inhibition levels and the ability to function without sleep for long periods of time.

“When we started cutting the stash to make lines, the colour of credits cards appeared on the substance. The white turned blue. After much hesitation when we finally sniffed the powder, we realised that this ‘new cocaine’ was no different from the regular one. In fact, in Mumbai it’s called the ‘poor man’s cocaine’,” Adit recalls.

“M-CAT is available at a much cheaper cost than other intoxicants such as ecstasy or cocaine. Mephadrone can be bought at Rs 150-500 per gram, as compared to cocaine, which is sold at Rs 3,000 per gram,” said Suhas Gokhale with Azad Maidan division of the Anti Narcotics Cell, explaining its reach and easy availability.

“Mephedrone is a synthetic cathinone and is primarily used as a designer drug. It’s commonly available in India, especially over the Internet where it’s sold as ‘Research Chemicals’, ‘Plant Food’, or ‘Bath Salts’, says Dr Yusuf Merchant, head of Thane-based Drug Abuse Information Rehabilitation and Research Centre (DAIRRC). But its the motive behind using the drug that is more worrisome. “Considered as a sex stimulant, teenagers as young as 14 years of age are abusing this substance,” explains Dr Merchant. Merchant said that in just the last six months he has admitted 21 new Mephadrone addicts to his rehabilitation centre.

As with every addiction, experts and police say that statements of children have showed the down side of the drug, with children as young as 14 using it as a sex stimulant.

“My consumption had drastically increased in over a year. At times I would not be able to sleep for three straight nights, hence, would drink myself to sleep every third night. Each drug has a specific effect and I primarily used mephadrone before having sex,” Adit said. “There were no emotions involved and I was nineteen,” he says, repenting his first experience of sex with a prostitute under the influence of the drug.

Believed to be ‘the new party drug’ in Mumbai, Adit said that “some of my friends who had partners were regularly using mephadrone to boost their sex lives.” “Besides being the cheapest, MCAT is also an ‘upper’, which basically means it gives an adrenaline boost,” Adit said.

The impact among the young generation has not escaped the attention of the state government either, with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis himself taking note of it. Fadnavis, on December 12, said during the Winter Session of the State Assembly in Nagpur that “the state government would pursue the matter with the center on Mephadrone,” since, NDPS is a Central Act. “A lot of our youth is getting affected and it is hazardous for their health,” Fadnavis had said.

With moustache barely growing above his upper lip, 14-year-old Rajiv (name changed), an Andheri resident said that he not only derives immense pleasure from the substance but even peddles the powder by ‘the book’ (five one gram packets), near City Center Mall on Swami Vivekanand Road of Goregaon West. Rajiv too was sent to rehabilitation after he started using it as a sex stimulant.

“I sniff MCAT in the morning or else I won’t be able to sleep at night and that would make my parents suspicious. The substance makes me feel ‘fast’,” Rajiv said.

Rajiv’s parents eventually did find out last week after their son ran away from their home with his peddler on the former’s motorbike. He claimed to have sniffed nearly 75 grams over two nights after finally being found by the police. Showing his scabs from his fall trying to escape the police, Rajiv said he has started peddling the drugs around away from his neighbourhood as it is “within his budget to buy M-CAT in bulk.” Rajiv has just been brought in to the centre-like a few others, all in the similar age group.

The police have, in the past two months, registered over 50 cases of possession and consumption of Mephedrone or ‘suspected methamphetamine’. The forensic sciences laboratory (FSL) in Kalina, which earlier used to receive 15 to 20 drug related cases in a month, received 120 cases, all of Mephedrone or ‘suspected meth’ in the last one month alone.

17-year-old Mehek (name changed) also shared that she peddled the substance like Rajiv and claimed to have made huge profits. “My weekly allowance was Rs 3,000 rupees but that also fell short for all my expenses. My excuses were limitless and I would always ask my family members that I need more money under the pretext of a college project.”

“I know that the drug is legal. I had Googled it. Like all the drugs I’ve tried I found out that it is actually not an offense to be caught in possession with it. When I have money on my debit card, I used to buy it on the internet, it’s so easily available,” she added.

Mehek shared that she took to Mephadrone in 2012 after a failed relationship.

“Every time I would sniff M-CAT I would feel hyperactive like as if I’m running on batteries. All the conversation would be at full pace, where it would be hard to keep track of the last sentence I spoke. Apart from the burst of energy that would not tire me or leave me breathless, I also had these pounding sexual urges. Though I never had sex with any person under the influence but I might have considered had I had a partner at that time,” Mehek added.

Dr Merchant said that most of the drug addicts have a problem of “more-ism”. Substantiating the point he said, “one can only consume more than they have already had and that is why addicts end ruining their lives especially financially when they try and fund this lifestyle that can’t leave behind.”

Adit said that he stole from his own house to buy more drugs. “I used to sell items like diamonds, pearls and gold in the house. Even a few electronic goods like phones and my mother’s iPad at Hira Panna in Mahalaxmi under a false name that was provided to me by a friend’s connection in the government. That contact had given me a bogus PAN card that we showed to shopkeeper while selling our electronics.”

Adit had even shared this experience when he was bringing drugs to a new year’s party in Cuffe Parade he cellotaped the drugs under the seat of the taxi.

“The fare was close to Rs 400 but we paid the drivers Rs 300 extra at the beginning as a bribe,” he admits.Experts say that the adverse effects of mephedrone include sweating, headache, palpitations, nausea, chest pain, bruxism (teeth grinding), agitation / aggression and paranoia. Additionally, nasal insufflation of Mephedrone is reportedly to be associated with significant nasal irritation and pain. Mehek is currently being treated at a private facility for her abuse and she conceded that her paranoia still has not worn off.

“There were multiple side effects on me — more mentally and psychologically than physically. I would not sleep, be constantly alert, I felt I was bi-polar with many mood swings and I had the feeling that the world was conspiring against me. I even felt that my dealer was conspiring with my mother against me and I was fighting them alone,” Mehek said.

Adit who is also undergoing treatment for his substance abuse problem has been sober for the past 12 months. “I clearly remember that night, sometime in the first week of January, when I rang the doorbell and then banged the door and my mother opened the door. I started scratching my face, peeling the skin off, banging my head on the wall. My mum took me in her arms and held my tightly so that I could not hurt myself anymore,” Adit said.

On December 23, a Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Bombay High Court by Dr Merchant, it said that ‘Mephadrone, a precursor to methamphetamine, should be listed under the NDPS Act.’ The respondents in the PIL are the Union of India, the director of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the state of Maharashtra.

Adit wants to pursue his education in business studies after his treatment, and will be doing his A-levels privately. Hedreams of getting into an Ivy-League University and making his parents proud.

rohit.alok@expressindia.com

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