Bengaluru: Ahead of the New Year, the Tumakuru police cracked down on drug peddlers and booked 32 cases and seized 1,720 tapentadol and aspadol tablets since November.
The police have also seized 44 kg of marijauna and tapentadol, a narcotic pain reliever, and aspadol, used to treat moderate to severe acute pain, totalling Rs 19.3 lakh. The police have booked 32 cases and arrested 72 people involved in the sale of drugs .
According to the police, the tablets are becoming a new trend among addicts because of their easy availability, which is why it goes under the radar of the police.
The police said the tablets are injected in liquid form, which makes it difficult to be detected through a narcotics analyser as it is a medical drug and does not come under marijuana or synthetic drugs. Even though the Drugs Control Department has banned the sale of drugs without prescription, some medical shops are selling the tablets illegally for higher prices, the police added.
It may be recalled that the cases of such tablets being used as replacement to drugs were on the rise in Bengaluru and the police along with the department cracked down on medical stores which were selling the tablets illegally. The police started paying attention to the sale of these tablets after they increasingly came across syringes abandoned around the haunts of addicts.
“We have intensified a drive to crack down on drug menace in the district and stepped up vigil,” Superintendent of Police, Tumkur district, K.V. Ashok said.
