Mum police to procure drug testing kits to speed up probe

After seizing nearly 400 kgs of drugs following a crackdown on peddlers this year, Mumbai police has now decided to procure saliva drug testing kits in a bid to identify drug consumers and speed up investigations.

After seizing nearly 400 kgs of drugs following a crackdown on peddlers this year, Mumbai police has now decided to procure saliva drug testing kits in a bid to identify drug consumers and speed up investigations.

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"We will soon put forward a proposal before the Home Department for procurement of saliva drug testing kits. This will simplify our process of identifying the drug consumers and enable us to speed up our probe," Additional Police Commissioner Deven Bharti said.

"Whenever we conduct raid at any place based on information about availability of drugs there, it becomes very difficult for us to ascertain who had consumed drugs and who did not," he said.

"For instance, when we raided a few pubs in the city earlier, we recovered drugs but we could not make out who had actually consumed it. As a result, we had taken all suspects in our custody and awaited medical reports before releasing non-consumers," Bharti said.

Police has arrested ten major drug peddlers including a Nigerain, with 24 kilograms of drugs worth Rs 27.54 lakhs.

The accused ensured that the drugs reached college campuses and pubs, the police official said.

Since January this year, the city police in a drive to bring down drug abuse, has seized 300 kgs of Charas, 84 kgs of Ganja, 15 kgs of Brown Sugar and Cocaine of 300 grams, he added.