NEW DELHI: If the Anmol Sarna tragedy last year blew the lid off the clandestine LSD love affair of the Delhi party-goer , this year he is caught up in an experiment with a new drug. Nicknamed crystal, glass, ice and chalk, methamphetamine is the new narcotic of choice in party circuits across the capital.

The narcotics cell offices have got wind of this menace with the shift in pattern of drug abuse visible in police drug seizures. Police did not find a single gram of meth in the last two years, but have already recovered 9,000 grams of the chemical between January and July.

In Delhi, the user buys cocaine for Rs 20,000 per gram. Meth is available at half that price. Users prefer it reportedly as the "high is happier". A user, who studies in a reputed college, says, "I can even snort it or smoke it and it doesn't go down with a terrible feeling as in the case of E. Plus, you don't have to shell out those extra bucks."

If sources are to be believed, several Delhiites aged between 17-25 years, who earlier abused ecstasy and cocaine, are fast switching to this drug.

In a dangerous trend, peddlers are lying about their ware to new users with many turning into accidental addicts. "First-time users fear a bad trip," said a peddler.

The special cell carried out an operation in mid-May this year in which four men from Mumbai and Kerala were arrested with narcotics worth Rs 100 crore. This seizure included methamphetamine. The drugs were picked up from near Attari border.

Delhi Police believes this racket is a vital arm of a transnational syndicate mass-trafficking high-value narcotics in Kuwait, Dubai, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Sri Lanka.

While a chunk gets imported, processing and even manufacturing takes place around the city.

Maharashtra narcotics department earlier busted meth labs in Thane and other Mumbai suburbs. The fact that the meth was crude indicated that it was being prepared as ice-the form in which it's sold to the end user-in labs on Delhi outskirts. "It's difficult to detect and bust these labs as many operate from homes located in the interiors of slums and crowded localities," said a source.

Making meth is a complex procedure as it requires mixing various forms of amphetamine with other chemicals but it does not require much infrastructure, says a senior officer. The process is easy-a mixer/shaker is used to mix pseudoephedrine pills and with red phosphorus and hydriodic acid . "This is all you require before you shake it up to make one of the world's most addictive drugs," says a peddler.

Sometimes, the maker uses pills prescribed as cold remedies, battery acid and kerosene oil to increase its potency, says a source. This is why meth makers-who are intoxicated themselves-end up burning their hands or even the entire lab. They also get exposed to toxic waste. On an average, 1,000 grams of meth produces over 4,000 grams of waste.

Source in Delhi Police said that the special cell and crime branch are alarmed because recent years have seen a sudden surge in recoveries of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine — the chemicals used to prepare meth.

Police fear a sinister narco-terrrorism module controlling the entire racket. The ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are made using government licence but the makers push the product in the black market.

