17/07/2025
Banned & Highly Dangerous Sedative Methaqualone Surfaces in Car Nicobar: Growing Drug Menace in Islands
Tarun Karthick, NICOBAR TIMES
Sri Vijaya Puram, 16 June 2025
A troubling case of drug consumption has come to light in Car Nicobar, where police (in an FIR) confirmed the presence of Methaqualone—a banned and highly dangerous substance. The incident took place in Tapoiming village and was reported by a local resident who became alarmed by the erratic behaviour of her brother.
According to the report lodged at Car Nicobar Police Station, the woman approached the Second Captain of the village on the night of June 13 and explained that her brother was behaving in a very unusual manner. He was reportedly sweating profusely, pulling his own hair, and shifting rapidly between uncontrollable laughter and crying. When she tried to help him change clothes after bathing him, she discovered a plastic packet with white, crystal-like contents inside his black bag marked “Supreme.” Suspecting this substance to be the cause of his condition, she immediately alerted the village second captain.
The next day, the woman, accompanied by her family and the village second captain, went to the Car Nicobar Police Station with the bag and the packet. Inspector T. Hemavathi, Station House Officer, conducted a field test using the Narcotic Drugs Detection Kit available at the station. The test result confirmed that the substance was Methaqualone. The packet was then weighed and found to contain 22.4 grams of the drug. The police promptly registered a case under Section 22(b) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and took the substance into custody.
Methaqualone is a powerful sedative-hypnotic drug that was once used as a medical treatment for insomnia and anxiety, but is now banned in India and many other countries due to its high potential for abuse and dangerous side effects. It works by depressing the central nervous system and can produce a false sense of calm or euphoria. However, its use can also lead to confusion, loss of motor control, slurred speech, nausea, and in severe cases, respiratory failure, coma, or death. When used repeatedly, Methaqualone can cause strong physical and psychological addiction, making it extremely dangerous.
What makes this case particularly alarming is the fact that the substance was discovered in a remote village of Car Nicobar Island. While methamphetamine use has been reported in the Islands before, the emergence of Methaqualone suggests a new and worrying trend in the local drug scene. The variety and potency of drugs now being found raise the risk of serious public health issues and signal that traffickers may be expanding their reach.
This development adds to growing concerns about the spread of drugs in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is not only the increasing number of cases that is troubling, but the fact that newer, riskier substances are making their way into secluded communities.
The case also raises several urgent questions. How are banned substances like Methaqualone reaching the Islands? Are there individuals or groups actively distributing these drugs to the youth of the Islands? Could the drug have been brought in by sea, or even washed ashore—raising another serious concern about what is happening along the coastline? If these substances are being trafficked via maritime routes, what systems are in place to detect and stop them? And if they are arriving accidentally, as part of larger illegal shipments dumped at sea, why are such materials reaching Nicobar’s shores?
Authorities have yet to provide answers, but the matter has to certainly draw enough attention to the urgent need for better coastal monitoring, community awareness, and drug prevention efforts. The threat has arrived in the Islands—and it must be addressed before it grows further.
