Gujarat is in the grip of a new drug threat. Not only is Mephedrone passing through the state, it is also being manufactured in its abandoned factories

(Illustration: Nilanjan Das)

That Gujarat was becoming a transit point for drugs has been an open secret for a while now. As is the fact that synthetic drugs form a significant part of that trade. What is becoming increasingly alarming for the security agencies in the state, however, is the realisation that such drugs are now being produced locally—in rundown godowns and abandoned pharmaceutical factories in Gujarat’s hinterland. Among them is the party drug Mephedrone, variously known as ‘meow meow’, ‘white magic’, ‘M-CAT’, ‘bubble’, or MD.