DOT Desk: Smokeless tobacco use marked a sharp rise among the drug addicts in recent times. Because of easy availability of smokeless tobacco, also called Sadapata, drug addicts, mostly Yaba and hemp addicts, have resorted to it to satisfy their addiction, reports The Daily Sun.
“Now, it is very hard to get Yaba and hemp due to vigilance of law enforcers. So, we are satisfying our addiction through Sadapata,” an addict said to this correspondent.
“Sadapata is very cheap,” he said, adding that a piece of Sadapata can be bought at between Tk 5-10 from betel leaf shops.
As per law, there is no bar in use of smokeless tobacco which is usually taken with betel leaf. However, drug addicts have turned it into a smoked tobacco product.
They consume it by mixing in cigarette or through hemp-consuming pipe.
Recently, the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) recovered a large quantity of smokeless tobacco leaves and hemp from different parts of the country.
This correspondent recently witnessed the technique of consumption of so-called Sadapata by drug addicts in the capital.
Firstly, a drug addict made a powder by pressing smokeless tobacco in his palm. Then he pushed the powder in a blank cigarette and lighted it up. Finally, he began to puff by releasing smokes. Other drug addicts followed the suit.
When asked about their feelings, they said it tasted like Yaba or hemp.
They also mentioned that they consume smokeless tobacco through pipes.
“Sometimes we consume it with hemp in creasing our happiness by manifold,” one of the drug addicts said.
Meanwhile, some shop owners in Badda and Vatara areas said that sale of Sadapata increased in last four to five months.
“I could sell 10 to 15 pieces of smokeless tobacco a day five to six months ago. But, now I sell 50 to 80 pieces a day. Most of the customers are drug addicts,” said Barek, a shop owner at Vatara.
“Earlier, we used to buy a kg of Sadapata at Tk 200. But, now it is sold at Tk 400 per kg,” he said.
According to sources at Tamak Birodhi Nari Jote, smokeless tobacco is also a tobacco product under “Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act, 2005 (amended in 2013)”.
“All tobacco products are harmful no matter how they are consumed.”
Kharshed Alam, an assistant director (media) at the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), told the daily sun on Friday that they had recovered Sadapata and hemp on several occasions in recent days.
“Actually, we have come to know from arrested drug addicts that they consume Sadapata by mixing it with hemp.”
“We’ll decide on the issue soon as consumption of Sadapata with hemp is more dangerous,” he said.