New Year fun has 'high' element as drug hotspots dot Lucknow

HT investigation unearths how easily narcotics are available amid craze for intoxication gripping workers, individuals to nightclubs. The state capital has everything to offer, right from weed, hash

- Aakash Ghosh and Animesh Mishra

LUCKNOW: Amid bright lights and a festive mood ahead of the New Year, the word 'fun' takes on a different meaning as the dark side of celebrations casts a shadow in the form of the open sale of narcotics in prominent pockets of the state capital right under the nose of the authorities who seem oblivious to the menace which almost everyone else can see.

The illegal drug business is ever present. And if a person has money and the desire to be on a high, getting the narcotic of choice is easy in Lucknow, HT reporters discovered as they fanned out across the city to investigate and unearth the illegal network.

The hotspots range from the city's party centre at Gomti Nagar to the narrow and busy lanes of the old city and residential pockets. Indeed, the state capital is no less than any metropolitan like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chandigarh in terms of the craze for intoxication.

At the right location, one can get everything from low priced weed to expensive Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), commonly known as ecstasy, available in tablet form. Not just that, if you have money and can pay in advance, you can also get cocaine (snorted through the nose, rubbed into gums, injected into the bloodstream, or smoked).

HT set out to get a sneak peek at the secret business of weed and other intoxicants in the City of Nawabs only to find that acquiring some of it was far easier than one might imagine.

The contraband is sold openly even during day time by a nexus of peddlers and beggars which can be seen by everyone, but not by the police.