Drugs can kill and that’s exactly what happened in Andhra Pradesh recently where a 43-year-old woman killed her 17-year-old son because he was addicted to smoking ganja.
The incident occurred in Andhra’s Guntur town on Saturday. According to reports, the boy identified as Vallepu Siddartha, was addicted to smoking weed and used to harass his mother for money about it. The accused, Somlatha, has been on the run since.
‘Sole breadwinner’
According to a report in Times of India, Somlatha worked as a sanitation worker with Guntur Municipal Corporation and lived in a rented house with her son. After her husband’s death, Sumlatha was the “sole breadwinner” of the house. Siddhartha, a school drop-out, was addicted to weed and would often harass her for money.
A quarrel
On Saturday, neighbours reported a quarrel between Sumlatha and her son. Following the incident, Sumlatha left that flat, allegedly saying, “I finally got rid of him”. Neighbours found Siddartha dead inside.
Nagarampalem police have taken up the matter and a case of murder has been lodged under 302 of IPC based on circumstantial evidence. Police are currently looking for Somlatha who has been on the run since the incident.
Use of psychoactive substances on the rise
This is not the first time that addiction to weed has been a cause of contention leading to murder. In a horrific incident in August last year, a 23-year-old cannabis addict named Naeem Pawaria in Bihar brutally killed his mother after she refused to pay him Rs 50 for buying weed. The incident occurred in Fakrabad and the man was booked for killing the woman.
The last few years in the country have seen a rise in the use of psychoactive substances among youth. In 2019, data from a national study conducted by AIIMS in collaboration with ten other medical institutions and 15 NGOs on drug use found a high percentage of people using psychoactive substances like alcohol, opioids, cannabis and others.
The study, quoted in a report by The New Indian Express, also found that while the use of cannabis was prevalent, the most used psychoactive substance remained alcohol.