The police have launched an investigation into a sudden spike in demand for syringes following alerts from medical shop owners in Kozhikode district. The police suspect that drug pushers are behind the large-scale purchase of syringes.
Recently, the police nabbed a migrant worker reportedly involved in inter-State drug trafficking after tracking a gang that purchased syringes in bulk from a medical shop in the city. He was arrested after the shop owner alerted the police about the bulk purchase.
The police said they had sought the cooperation of medical shop owners to monitor individuals purchasing tranquilliser drugs or syringes in large quantities. “Though sedative drugs are sold only with a doctor’s prescription, some individuals are reportedly misusing others’ prescriptions to buy these medicines from shops,” they added.
The monitoring of syringe sales began only recently,” said a police officer from the anti-narcotics squad in Kozhikode city. He added that the step was taken in response to growing concerns about their potential misuse in connection with substance abuse.
Meanwhile, some medical shop owners in the city said they had been closely monitoring the sale of tranquilliser drugs following instructions from the Health department and law enforcement agencies. “Psychotropic drugs are sold only with a prescription, which is checked multiple times for authenticity,” they added.
The police said some wholesale medical suppliers in neighbouring States were not fully following government guidelines for distributing psychotropic drugs. This oversight has allowed some inter-State drug pushers to obtain large quantities of these medicines for illegal sale in Kerala targeting school and college students, they addeed.
Published – April 13, 2025 11:19 pm IST
