As Kerala grapples with drugs crisis, de-addiction centres see massive rush

“Lifespan had suit a disarray,” rued the 26-year-old, who requested to stay fresh his make anonymous. The resident of Cheranallur in Ernakulam district of Kerala packed his bags in the first week of March and voluntarily admitted himself into Mukti Sadan, a Catholic Church-run de-addiction centre, 16 kilometres away because he knew he needed to get his life back on track. “In 2019, I smoked my first cigarette. Soon, I was drinking liquor regularly with my friends, mostly white rum. Afterwards, I began using ganja and in the past year, shifted to MDMA. Locally, we call it ‘podi’ (powder in Malayalam). It was during a wedding where an older friend introduced it, and I tried it out of curiosity. For the next six hours, I felt extremely happy and was talkative,” the 26-year-old recalled. The lack of job prospects after completing a two-year ITI instrumentation course and the compulsion to tend to his sick grandmother at home while his single mother taught at a school meant that he spent most of his free time drowning in hard liquor and snorting MDMA with his gang of friends. The escapades never translated into violence or brawls – he pointed out – but they made life “slow and boring” in his words. “I realised I was 26 years of age and I needed to stand up on my own feet and decide my course of life. When an acquaintance priest said I could find help here at Mukti Sadan, I came here the next day,” he said, who now spends his days at the de-addiction centre attending therapy and prayer sessions along with a couple of hours of badminton.According to officials at private centres like Mukti Sadan and the state-run Vimukti chain of de-addiction centres, the beds are running out like never before, and the stream of phone calls from anxious families pleading for a bed for their loved ones has become a deluge.Grim DataAccording to the government statistics of those who sought treatment at the Vimukti centres, the inpatient admissions there stood at 593 in 2019. This soared to 2,240 in 2020, 1935 in 2023 and 1791 in 2024. The outpatient numbers were higher –16,681 in 2021, 27,061 in 2022, 24,075 in 2023 and over 25,000 in 2024, the data stated. In the first two months of this year alone, over 3,900 outpatient and 199 inpatient arrivals were recorded. The data pointed out the susceptibility of minors to drug abuse. “In 2021, the number of minors seeking assistance at Vimukti was 681 and it rose to 1,238 the next year, 1,982 in 2023 and 2,880 in 2024. In the first two months of 2025, 588 of them sought treatment. They are about 15% of the total patients,” it stated As the number of patients at the Vimukti centres continue to rise, an excise department official working at one of such centres said that there are limited number of beds. “Most of the Vimukti centres, set up at district hospitals, only have 10 beds each and offer de-addiction services, not long-term rehabilitation. There is an urgent need for a state-run rehab centre and more beds and personnel at existing centres. Once the capacity is increased, the IP admissions will go up,” the official said.The severity of the crisis is also evident in the number of cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) in India. According to the Union Home ministry, Kerala topped the country in the past three years, beating states like Punjab and Maharashtra. In 2024, Kerala registered 27,701 cases as compared to 9025 cases in Punjab and 7,536 cases in Maharashtra. In 2023, Kerala had 30,715 cases compared to 11,564 in Punjab and 15,561 in Maharashtra. In the first three months of 2025, the Kerala police, as part of its state-wide operation P-Hunt, filed 12,760 cases and seized ₹12 crore worth of drugs. The excise department, in a parallel operation, seized ₹7.09 crore worth of drugs in March alone. Over 13,000 raids were conducted last month, and 1,316 people arrested so far. Drug-fuelled violence The crisis has escalated with police pointing to the consumption of narcotics behind several violent acts, including murders, in recent times.On March 19, a 25-year-old man named Yasir, known to use synthetic drugs, was arrested for hacking his estranged wife to death in Kozhikode. A week earlier, 28-year-old Shanid Saleem died after swallowing packets of MDMA upon seeing the police in Thamarassery. And in January, a 27-year-old history sheeter alleged by locals to consume cannabis regularly, walked into his neighbour’s home following a small tiff and bludgeoned three persons to death with an iron pipe. He was arrested within hours by the police. At a press briefing on April 16, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, while talking about the extensive anti-drug campaign of the state government, said, “The trafficking and consumption of synthetic drugs has increased significantly. Statistics show that synthetic drugs are flowing into Kerala mainly from other states.”“It is important to note that students and young people are the ones who consume drugs the most. Our experience shows that children are becoming addicted to drugs from primary school onwards,” he added.Need for long-term rehab facilitiesBack at the Mukti Sadan, the Syro-Malabar Church-run centre in Pookattupady on the outskirts of Kochi, Fr Praveen Johny is inundated with daily inquiries for admissions from police, social workers and families. Often, helpless mothers with sons getting violent while going through withdrawal symptoms call him at night, he says, pleading to take them in.“We have only 15 beds and a lot of limitations. We have not been getting aid from the government for the past three years despite repeated requests. We get a lot of anxious calls from families with youngsters who are addicted to drugs and creating mayhem at home. The families get peace of mind when they are brought here. Today, an average of 60% of our inmates are in the 18-25 age bracket which is frankly disturbing,” said Fr Johny.The priest-cum-project director at Mukti Sadan said the younger patients who are exposed to drugs like cannabis and MDMA report a variety of issues from drug-induced psychosis to sleep and mood disorders, sexual problems and hallucination and delusions. “Scientific studies have shown that the relapse rate in drug addiction treatment is high. It is very difficult for us to get good satisfaction rates. One thing we do diligently to prevent them from relapsing is following up and inquiring about their day-to-day activities over the phone. We ask them to show up physically, too. Around 5% of people are self-motivated not to use drugs again,” said Fr Johny. Dr Anu Sobha, a psychiatrist at the Mukti Sadan, called for long-term rehab facilities within the living conditions of those struggling with drug addiction.“For alcoholics, one to three months at a de-addiction centre with group therapy is very effective. We are finding good results. But for those struggling with drug addiction, recovery is not possible within a month. Even if they are ambivalent about drug use after a month or two, they are still returning to the same living conditions where they have peer groups with access to drugs,” said Sobha.She pointed out that the government, enforcement agencies and arms of civil society like parents, school and college administrators and NGOs must come together to put forward a comprehensive plan to minimise the impact of drugs on youngsters.“We need a bio-social-psych model to tackle this. There are factors like unemployment and breakdown in romantic relationships that fuel the crisis,” she said. ‘Need for stringent laws’TM Maju, deputy excise commissioner in Ernakulam district, claimed the high number of cases in the state is due to better detection and enforcement.“Over 90% of synthetic drugs like MDMA flowing into Kerala are coming from Bengaluru. But the enforcement there is not strong. So naturally, the detection of cases in Karnataka is low. People here are realising there is a (drugs) crisis because we are detecting and filing cases. It can be managed if neighbouring states step up too,” he told HT.The excise officer also called for amendments to anti-narcotic laws. “For example, only if a person is caught with a minimum of 1 kg of ganja can he be imprisoned. For anything less than 1 kg, he can be booked, but he must be released on bail. For MDMA, the limit is 0.5 grams. So, if a person is a dealer, he walks out within hours. It sends a wrong message to the public,” the officer said, calling for abolition of such possession limits for dangerous synthetic drugs. “The necessary amendments to NDPS Act, 1985, have to be initiated by the Union government. States like Kerala individually cannot do much,” he added.