The recent death of Parag Raikar (26) and Rodson Monteiro (27) at a birthday party in Curtorim due to an alleged drug overdose and a recent accident on the Raia highway in January, which was also linked to drugs, raises eyebrows on the rising drug scene in Salcete.
May 1 was a little gloomy for anxious Xaxtikars when Alston D’Melo the host of the birthday party in Curtorim where the two boys died was granted bail and the investigations have come a standstill.
Similarly in the January 07, accident when two boys on a Dio crashed into a barricade at Raia with the pillion rider surviving while the rider died on the spot was also an alleged drug cover-up that seems to have been hushed up. That’s when the Herald decided to hit the ground and check what exactly is Salcete’s drug menace.
“That’s the problem here. Alston is known in the village to be a trouble maker and involved in soliciting women and peddling drugs. Here was an opportunity for the police to nail him but they just let him go on bail once again. This has happed so often,” stated Maina-Curtorim villager Grenimo Fernandes.
Sadly the scene in Salcete is much worse. It’s no more boys in their late 20s and 30s doing drugs neither is the drug scene limited to the North Goa coastline. The drug scene has spread far beyond and is a big menace amongst adolescents in the age group of 15 to 17 years, teens just out of school. Even worse, they are doping at church squares, jogging tracks, fields, hills, football grounds, bridges and abandoned building in the villages of Loutolim, Curtorim, Maina, Raia, Rachol, Assolna, Navelim, Chinchinim and the Margao monte.
Drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes is passé. A habitual drug user from Rawanfond in the age category of 28-years speaking to Herald said, “Earlier, trying new drugs was done with someone elderly and experienced. We also did drugs at home or in the midst of a large group and never abused it but today young kids are trying lethal drugs left, right and center. They’re even peddling drugs for money.”
The drug user explains that though the activity was illegal even then, there was a lot of research and an initiation process to try out even smoking weed or hash.
The reason for the drug menace to spread is because of literally no policing in the villages. The drug scene has dispersed from the coastline because of strict hotel owners and the success of the beach patrol teams but no policing in villages has made church squares, abandoned football grounds, dark areas on the montes of villages and even along the streets in Salcete susceptible for youngsters to sit on their bikes and dope, exclaims Orlim villager Jeren Dias.
Nowadays kids lookup youtube videos on how to roll a joint, how to snort cocaine, how to consume acid or holy water, how to sniff meow meow or inject morphine and then without any supervision are doing these drugs alone, most often not knowing how to handle the high or the addiction.
Another Chinchinim-based drug user who picked the habit from his college days in Mapusa exclaims that Salcete has fallen prey to meow meow which is cheapest form of lethal drugs and large adulterated quantities of it are supplied and sold to adolescents in schools and higher secondary colleges.
Mephedrone, also known as 4-methylmethcathinone (4-MMC) or 4-methylephedrone, is a synthetic stimulant drug of the amphetamine and cathinone classes. Slang names include drone, M-CAT, White Magic and meow meow. It is chemically similar to the cathinone compounds found in the khat plant of eastern Africa.
“For some time it has been ketamine, valiums, cough syrups and certain painkillers. But now it’s meow!” says a foreigner, a regular at the Colva, who claims to have done everything in the dope scenario.
“See earlier boys and girls would sneak out of home to meet up for a smoke or to drink at a house party but now its drugs. Kids are even snorting off the toilet seat in shacks and restaurants during dinner parties,” explains the Chinchinim drug user.
He explained how kids are even chipping in Rs 50 each to buy a packet of Rs 1,000 worth meow meow, consuming 25% and reselling the rest at the same price to their friends to recover the money and trade once again to consume drugs. Even worse the girls are doing the same.
Police have booked offences against Alston D’Mello and Mathew (full name not known and still absconding), a resident of Raia – charging them under Section 304 of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and under sections contained in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 but nothing more seems to come in light of this cases. Many such cases have been shut in the past.
Alston’s party, it’s believed, was an open birthday and friends invited could bring their acquaintances and friends along with their own booze and food concept. Two boys unknown to the rest are believed to be the ones who brought the acid and poured it out in water and alcohol and served the rest in an inebriated condition stating that its holy water from the Church. Parag Raikar (26) and Rodson Monteiro (27) who fell victim to the drugs are believed to have no doping history in the past and could not handle their drug high. Both at the party were seen laughing like crazy and banging their heads to the wall and floor after consuming drugs and are believed to have died of internal bleeding.
D’Mello has been remanded to seven-day police custody and got bail on Friday, and a hunt is on to nab Mathew. While D’Mello had hosted the party at his residence, Mathew was also an organizer, police sources said. Police investigations have revealed that D’Mello is a DJ and two of his DJ friends from Calangute were also present at the party. D’Mello had earlier hosted such parties at his house which continue through the night. As his parents are away in Australia on a holiday, D’Mello, the only son, used this opportunity to invite friends to his house and host such parties.
