Drive against drugs: Police reach out to schools, colleges

CHENNAI: As part of their awareness programme against drug and tobacco usage, Chennai Police officers conducted awareness in more than 50 educational institutions in a single day on Tuesday.

In a special drive on Tuesday, police booked 14 cases and arrested 17 persons for either possession or sale of ganja or oral tobacco products.

Of these, five persons were arrested for possession of ganja and about 500 grams of ganja was seized. Twelve persons were arrested for sale of banned oral tobacco products like Gutkha and over 2.4 kg of Gutkha products were seized, police said.

Teams headed by City Police Inspectors visited 49 schools and 6 colleges and created awareness about the police's DAD (Drive against Drugs) and DABToP (Drive against Banned Tobacco Products) and advised the youth to stay away from such habits.

"Apart from schools and colleges, we also conducted awareness programmes at 72 public places in the city. In a single day, we were able to reach out to more than 5,000 persons including 3,500 students. This will be a continuous process and our teams are also working at striking at the source- those who smuggle these items into the city," a senior police officer said.