Like Zombies: How Agartala’s growing drug problem is ruining a generation

Agartala: It was a warm, sleepy April night in Agartala. Sil (name changed), was wandering frantically in Agartala streets and understandably so: Sil was ‘high’, a term that refers to people under the strong influence of an intoxicant (usually not alcohol). When members of an NGO found him, he was searching a dustbin for discarded food. He was then taken to a de-addiction centre. 

Some might even consider Sil lucky: he received the much-needed attention and even though it took six months, he emerged addiction-free. Nevertheless, years of abuse took a toll on him. The NGO members who treated him informed EastMojo that due to unsafe needle sharing, he had contracted HIV.

“He is with his parents…when he was an addict, he had run away from his home. He used to spend his nights under the Agartala Flyover and do odd jobs during the day. He used to spend all his earnings on drugs. It took four months for us to trace his parents and after a while, we handed him over to them. However, we could not rescue him on time. He is already HIV positive,” said Malyaban Chakraborty of the Rupayan Foundation, a Tripura-based NGO working on rehabilitating drug addicts. 

Sil’s story is just one among a hundred such stories that emerge daily from Tripura as the state continues to combat the ever-rising drug consumption among the locals, especially youths. Almost all such addicts, according to experts, start on a similar trajectory: they begin by using pocket money to buy drugs and soon start stealing things to satisfy their increasing cravings. 

If you were to stroll Agartala streets at night, you would see hundreds of people for whom the only way they can remain addicts is by turning the streets into their only shelter.

Police officials posted at the Battala police station, located a stone’s throw from Agartala’s only flyover, said in the last three months, they have recovered four dead bodies. “Some (of them) could not be identified till now,” a police official told EastMojo on the condition of anonymity. 

Now, it is not as if the Tripura society is unfamiliar with the concept of drugs. For example, every local will tell you that marijuana (Ganja) has always been consumed in the state, but the current scale of drug consumption far exceeds anything locals have witnessed. More worryingly, however, the current drugs, almost all of which are chemical-based, are wreaking havoc at a scale where NGOs and government agencies can simply not cope. And we are not talking about banned cough syrups like Phensedyl and Eskuff.

State government officials said drug abuse skyrocketed between 2018 and 2022 cases and in most cases, the victim belonged to the 15-25 age group.

Only a matter of time before users turn into peddlers

One of the more shocking lessons EastMojo learnt during this investigation is that it is only a matter of time before users also join the supply chain either as peddlers or sellers. “Once they leave home, they do whatever it takes for money. From being an addict, they embark on the journey of peddling. They can earn enough to satisfy their cravings,” a police official posted at West Agartala police station said.

Our location makes us extremely vulnerable

Northeast’s proximity to the Golden Triangle has turned Tripura into an easy target for the region’s international drug syndicate and earlier this month, the Tripura CM also said that most drugs to Tripura came via Mizoram, which borders Myanmar. Interestingly, Mizoram cops EastMojo spoke with, agreed with the Tripura CM’s assessment. 

Drugs from Mizoram enter Tripura via two routes: the Tripura-Mizoram borders located in Kanchanpur (North Tripura), and a longer route via Silchar (Assam) and then Churaibari (Tripura).

Sources in the Churaibari police station informed EastMojo that apart from the National Highway that connects Tripura with Assam, there are some less-travelled rural roads. The drug traffickers use that road instead of the main national highway because of heavy security deployment.

Speaking on the issue, PRO, of Tripura Police Jyotshiman Das Chowdhury said, “This is an organised network. For each consignment, a carrier is assigned who leads it to the destination. Some packets are used which look identical to plastic-made soap cases. Each case can store 15 to 16 grams of powder. The carriers travel with these cases and make sure that they reach their destination. They are paid well for this job.”

At a retail level, this powder is filled in small vials mainly used for administering homoeopathic medicine. “These powder-filled vials are colloquially called ‘Koutta (container)’ which is Brown Sugar. Just because it is sold in small containers it has been given the moniker of Koutta but the material inside it is Brown Sugar. Apart from that, Yaba tablets are also consumed locally. We have reports that suggest that a substantial amount of drugs that enter Tripura also cross the borders to reach Bangladesh,” Chowdhury explained.  

Tripura Mental Health State Programme Officer Dr Udayan Majumder said, “Koutta is the biggest concern for the state…chemically, Koutta is nothing but an adulterated form of Heroin called Brown Sugar. All these are synthetic and derived from Opium. Banned cough syrups Phensedyl and some tablets which are now available in the market are also Opium based.”

“The peak of drug-related cases,” Majumder said, “was in 2021 and 2022. Now, the graph has plateaued…the cases are not rising and the figures are progressing at a steady pace. The newly opened OST (Opioid substitution therapy) centres played a vital role. In the beginning, we only had five OST centres but now 23 such centres operate across all subdivisions. The drug addicts go there and take medicine every day.”

According to Majumder, the fight against drugs is a two-tier process—supply reduction and demand reduction. “Through medical treatments, we can help the addicts to get rid of their cravings which will impact on the demand reduction and the task of supply reduction is entrusted to the home department,” Majumder added.

Within drug usage, adulteration is a big issue too, which further endangers the lives of addicts. “Some drug peddlers are now involved in adding impurities to the narcotic substance. ENO powders, a mixture of salt and chilly powder, are added to the drugs to increase the quantity mainly in retail selling. The residual after producing Brown Sugar is called Sun Flower which is mostly sold in the Agartala market. This is very cheap and affordable, while the pure version of Brown Sugar is costlier. Heroin is very expensive compared to other drugs,” said Malyaban Chakraborty, the founder of Rupayan Foundation.

When asked about the process of consumption, he explained, “We learnt from the users that there are two ways of drug consumption. The first one is to inhale the vapour produced by the powder. In the second process, which is responsible for the rise in HIV cases, a small amount of blood is drawn from the veins and mixed with the powder. And that is later injected again into the body. The addicts keep sharing the needle again and again to repeat the process and get infected in the process.”

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