Drug menace in Kerala: Even policemen's familes affected, says senior police officer

A senior police officer on Thursday revealed the extent to which narcotic drugs have penetrated into Kerala society, saying there was a situation wherein children of the families of policemen too became addicted to contraband substances.

Kochi City Police Commissioner K Sethuraman said two children of a superintendent of police in the state have become addicted to drugs and his family is in crisis.

Sethuraman, while addressing the Kerala Police Officers' Association (KPOA) state conference at nearby Angamaly, urged his colleagues to take this matter very seriously.

"We should open our eyes and check why this is happening within the quarters we live in. There are many such cases. There are instances of children of policemen of all ranks being addicted to drugs. An SP's two boys are addicted to drugs. It is an unbearable situation. The family itself is in trouble. This needs to be taken very seriously," the IPS officer said.

Sethuraman also referred to an incident in which the drug-addict child of a police officer was killed in Thiruvananthapuram district.

He, however, said drug use in Kerala is lower than the national average.

The senior police officer's statement came two days after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan cautioned teachers and parents against the increasing influence of the drug mafia among children and said his government is making effective interventions to curb the dangerous menace.

Many innocent children are falling into the trap laid by the mafia, and there seems to be no gender difference in contraband consumption among youngsters, he said in Kannur on May 23.

A recent survey conducted by Kerala police among youths below 21 years of age who were victims of substance abuse has revealed another shocking fact that 40 per cent of them were below the age of 18.

What is more frightening is that a majority of them were girls, and after falling prey to the drug cartels, they were being used as carriers, it said.