Why are Students in West Bengal using Condoms to get ‘High’?

A handful of students residing in Durgapur are under the grip of a strange addiction.

To everyone’s shock, the sale of flavoured condoms has drastically increased in various parts of Durgapur such as Durgapur City Center, Bidhannagar, Benachiti, and Muchipara, C Zone, and A Zone.

The rather bizarre occurrence has raised questions among all.

Out of sheer curiosity, a local shopkeeper asked a young man, a regular customer at his shop.

In response, the young man said he regularly buys condoms to get intoxicated.

Understandably, the people of Durgapur are baffled after learning about this new “means” of addiction.

Dheeman Mandal, who works at Durgapur Divisional Hospital, responded to the unusual fascination and said:

“Condoms contain aromatic compounds. It breaks down to form alcohol. It is addictive.

“This aromatic compound is also found in dendrites glue. So many people use dendrite for addiction also.”

Analysing this further, Durgapur RE College Model School Chemistry teacher Nurul Haque said:

“The long-term soaking of condoms in hot water causes intoxication due to the breakdown of large organic molecules into alcoholic compounds.”

Shopkeepers of a medical shop in Durgapur say: “Earlier 3 to 4 packets of condoms were sold per shop per day. And now a pack of condoms is disappearing from a store.”

In the mid of 21st century, because of addiction, toothpaste and shoe ink sales in Nigeria once increased six times than usual.

And now, condoms are off the shelf within a day or two in Durgapur.

As a result, the concern of the administration is mounting as it may cause severe smash up in the student circle of the place.

In an unrelated incident in Telangana, a video of a woman rubbing chilli powder onto the eyes of her teenage son to punish him for marijuana addiction went viral.

The woman tied her 15-year-old boy to a pole and resorted to this punishment after all her efforts to wean her son away from marijuana went in vain.

According to a report in Sakshi, the woman was Ramanamma from the Suryapet district who is a daily wage worker. Her husband is a rickshaw driver.

The son used to attend school before the Covid-19 pandemic but dropped out later.

He then got addicted to marijuana and did not mend his ways despite several warnings.

This time, when he went missing from home for 10 days and came back in a drugged state, the mother tied him to a pole and rubbed chilli powder on his eyes.