Gone are the days when marijuana or ecstasy used to be popular among drug users as now it’s highly intoxicating psychotropic substances with code names like shaman, alien abduction and saliva, which are a hit among outdoor party hoppers and youngsters.
Armed with code names (such as blizzard and diviner’s sage) and the gift of Internet, many young professional are increasingly trying these drugs. “I tried DMT once in Goa,” opines Tarun Anand (named changed on request).
Some users feel that these drugs (especially DMT and Ayahuasca) give them an allusion of cosmic enlightenment. “Basically these drugs take you away from reality and for months you wonder what was it that you experienced. These are becoming common drugs in the Goa party circuit and other tourist destinations,” opines Arnab Hazarika, an executive of Genpact India.
As most of these chemicals are extracted from plants, we spoke to botanists about their hallucinating qualities. Professor of Botany Dr Dinobandhu Sahoo says, “Keeping in mind, the sensitivity of these chemicals, their use without going through the literature can be fatal.”
From watching online videos posted by other drug users while tripping or preparing these drugs to ordering them online through various websites, the craze for these have touched an unprecedented high especially among neo-professionals.
Registered users in these websites can order ayahuasca and saliva kits for $25 (approximately Rs 1,200), and many such websites claim to have loyal customers around the world. Sources in the Narcotics Bureau of India, say that the NDPS Act of India is yet to have a law to curb deals through the Internet.
“No matter how the deal is done it’s illegal as per the NDPS Act. But Internet communication allegedly doesn’t come under the surveillance of the Narcotics department and if the substances are precursors and don’t come in the Narcotics department’s controlled substances list, we can’t do anything,” adds a source on the condition of anonymity.