‘Crush distribution network to kill the menace’

S Cyril Alexander, state convenor of Tamil Nadu People’s Forum for Tobacco Control, says that north Chennai has been the breeding ground for such addictions, with a sizeable number of children falling victim to ‘drug chocolates’. 

“As many as 30 per cent of the school children in the area are addicted to these chocolates and in most cases they walk into the trap out of curiosity. This has been happening for over a year now. Had the authorities concerned taken swift action, the menace wouldn’t have spread to this level. Marijuana or cannabis is extremely harmful and addictive, worse than tobacco addiction that is restricted to nicotine,” he says. 

A Narayanan, director, Change India, says that the narcotic chocolate is a new angle to the scale of addiction among children today. 

“We have tobacco being sold and TASMAC shops near schools making children as young as 10 getting addicted to these items. Now, the new angle is narcotic chocolate. Chennai being densely populated, with a large floating population and youngsters forming a sizeable volume, apart from high purchasing power, the highly urbanised state has a number of contributing factors for these kinds of abuse. We have to target the network, rather than raiding shops. A special squad has to be there in place for the purpose to root out this problem,” the Change India director said.