Bengaluru is tripping on LSD lookalike drug NBOMe and it costs Rs 300

You can read this as a Desi twist of the popular Netflix TV Series ‘Narcos’.

Camouflaging as psychedelic drug LSD, a new type of narcotic has silently entered the wild party circuit of Bengaluru. Often referred to as South India’s drug capital, the IT hub in Bengaluru has now got a new drug to get tripped. This LSD-lookalike is NBOMe, which has killed numerous in the west. Fret not! For the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is already hunting out the roots.

What is NBOMe?
Based on methoxybenzaldehyde and a few other common chemicals distilled and boiled, NBOMe is a psychedelic drug. Available in liquid form, it is used on blot strips. Users put it on tongue to get absorbed in hallucination.

How did it come to circulation?
Early this year, a courier consignment carrying NBOMe from Koramangala to Saudi Arabia was intercepted by NCB. They presumed that there would be some 166 blot strips of LSD as mentioned by the tip-off. However, investigation by Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Hyderabad revealed that those were (4-Methoxy-benzyl)-Phenethyl-Amine, popularly called NBOMe.
One does of LSD has market price of Rs 2,000. Whereas preparing one dose of NBOMe costs Rs 300. Now the profit margin of the peddlers was well imagined.

Long Story
The Narcotic Bureau couldn’t arrest anyone who carried NBOMe because it wasn’t listed under banner narcotics of NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act. However after Bengaluru’s drug circuit started tripping on NBOMe, a special report was filed to the NCB headquarters and later this drug was added.

Sources claimed that surveillance and tracking are underway to track NBOMe peddlers in the city. They also added that the NBOMe gangs in Karnataka have roots in Mangaluru and Bengaluru and also have close links with drug syndicates in Goa and Maharashtra.

NBOMe situation in the party circuit is now being closely monitored. While the operations to nab the roots are underway, the pubs and close parties are on the radar. It has been found that many young people in Bengaluru have started NBOMe processing set ups in their homes itself. Police has found beakers, distillery processing units in some students’ homes.