A 17 -year -old boy from Tirupati left his first year intermediate examination in December 2024 and quietly left home. His widowed mother, a central government employee, became suspicious when his teenage son failed to return home, and felt that his 60 grams of gold chain and of 28,000 cash were missing from Almira. He had doubts about his son’s addiction, but failed to understand how serious it was.
The mother did not contact the police, instead began a frantic discovery with the help of the boy’s friends. After a week, the boy came to know in a coastal village at the extreme end of Andhra Pradesh, with the border of Ganjam district of Odisha. He was found with a bundle of dried hemp, an old weed-dhumrapan pipe, and was enjoying sea air under the effect only in 35 cash.
On his mother’s question, the boy revealed that he sold a series for ₹ 30,000 to buy a packet of one kilo of ganja. He told him that he was tagging with four middlemen, and took care of his food for a week.
He returned to Tirupati, and mother warned the boy that if she ever touches ‘Ganja’ or any other substance, she would end her life. Under his mother’s constant care and attention, the boy successfully abolished the ‘The Dark Chapter’ and is now earning a B tech degree from a private college in Chennai.
However, not everyone is lucky as him. Many youths between the age of 17 to 30 are caught in drug addiction, struggling and struggling with the fight between survival and life.
The fight against drugs has been strictly raised by several non-governmental organizations and government agencies, including eagles (elite anti-nashi for law enforcement), Government Railway Police, Railway Protection Force and Civil Police, including many non-governmental organizations and government agencies.
In search of matter, many youths of Rayalaseema districts are traveling to Andhra -Odisha border (AOB) area. Officials claim that this is because the cultivation of ganja in Andhra Pradesh was “zero” after the formation of the Eagle last year’s FAG, which forces the pedals and consumers of the southern states to depend on the eastern side of the AOB region, where the estimated 10,000-plus acres still thrive on opposite farming.
“Those involved in the supply chain are often disguised as a devotee banking on pilgrimage routes in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka. Tirupati in AP usually serves as a major logistics hub for Chennai, Bangalore and further distribution.”Senior intelligence officer
However, the latest measures targeting cannabis smuggling, sales and consumption, still failed to control the deep roots of intoxication, which back to the British colonial period, dating back to Rayalaseema districts. A misconception is that the role of a ‘joint with a ganja’ is equal to three-fourths of rum.
Before the NDPS Act came into force in 1985, Ganja was used extensively with small packets available at arterial junctions in every city of railway stations, bus stand and riyalaseema. Later, although availability remained, consumption became more secret.
According to police officials, Modus Operandi is always to target both “rich” and “working class”. Students and daily wage workers can often not bear high prices, so they buy adulterated items that intensifies their craving, pushing them deeply in addiction. The rich youth, however, get a fine-luxury parts offering a “supreme experience” that triggers hallucinations, but also occurs after a substandard or adulterated accessories.
The cost of cigarette -filled cigarettes a day is just ₹ 10, but today, the possibility of three such cigarettes is around ₹ 300 or more. A drug pedaler between Visakhapatnam and Chennai, with half a dozen supply points, once told the police that the challenge was not stopping the flow of hemp from the AOB region, but stopping the youth from royalseema – and even to the neighboring states – re -hunting.
Kovid epidemic killed the nation, before two people were caught with a small amount of ganja near an educational institution in Putur in Chittoor district. Investigation revealed that the pedals first approached the students and then eventually pursued the pedallers to supply them. In 2011, two engineering students were arrested in Tirupati with a price of ₹ 1.2 crore with cocaine, exposing the vulnerability of the students.
In recent years, police have been cautious about disclosing the participation of students, either as consumers or pedals. Entry of minors and women – in some cases the mother and child – have surprised the enforcement agencies. By August 2025, the police recorded 176 criminals in the United Chittoor and Tirupati districts, including 50 repeated criminals.
The Kadapa -Tectur highway has now turned into a sensitive corridor for cannabis smuggling. While the major halls are rare, the vehicle check is small but repeated seizures from regular vehicles. The police focus special focus on mangampet and nearby mandals, as trafficers use low-finished feeders roads.
A senior intelligence officer, who has led several tasks against red sanders and ganja smuggling, explains why Rayalaseema – as his transit capital with Tirupati – remains a hub.
A file photo of about 35,000 kg seized Ganja was stored in Jawaharlal Nehru Pharmaceutical of Parvada in Anakalli district. , Photo Credit: KR Deepak
“Most smugglers run in small groups, often using women and children as couriers. It is wooed by proposals beyond their daily wages, women who earn only ₹ 400 in a day, they are offered ₹ 10,000 for a single journey between Tirupati and Visakhapatnam, sometimes in luxury cars and civilized cups.
The police avoid extensive investigation when women and children are involved. Four bags carrying every 5 kg are usually camouflaged with undergarments and cosmetics, which completely discouraged the investigation. Those involved in the supply chain are often disguised as devotees, wearing seasonal wools like Ayyappa, Govinda, or Shiva on pilgrimage routes across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Tirupati, wearing a seasonal motor like Chennai, Bengaluru, and beyond.
“Sometimes, the inquiry becomes funny,” says an official, “near Nagari a few years ago, we caught a 55-year-old man with a woman and child-presenting as a wife and son and son-in Ayyappa Mala. When questioned, the man started cursing us in the name of Lord Ayyappa. Such religious disorders made us difficult.”
Due to increased monitoring measures, the wholesale price of cannabis has allegedly doubled ₹ 5,000 per kg last year, which has increased to 10,000 per kg per kg per kg. The police have forced the pedals to rely on the roadways on the vehicles coming from Odisha.
Police with accused arrested with ganja stock and a bike seized in Chittoor in January 2025. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Former Chittoor Superintendent of Police VN Manikant Chandolu said that controlling transit routes is harder than to erase farming. He admitted that minors and students are often implicated by pedals, but assured that preventive measures were being carried forward.
“We are running awareness campaigns in educational institutions, forming eagle clubs, and displaying posters. The farming will remain tight with the farming state, and transit routes,” he said.
Former District Medical and Health Officer Dr. P. Ravi Raju, President of Andhra Pradesh Nursing Homes Association, warned against the use of ganja. “Medical studies suggest that the youth are highly insecure. The addicts are lost, face loss of muscle, and weaken. They take out themselves out of shame and, with impaired brain function, can commit crimes under hallucinations. Long -term addiction often leads to failure or suicide,” he said.
According to the data, in 2013, the police registered only one ganja case in Chittoor, where the accused ran away, left behind ₹ 1,200 of 50 grams of hemp. By 2024-2025, cases increased by 92, with 283 accused cited, 245 arrests, and 290 kg seized – the value of ₹ 55 lakh was ₹ 55 lakhs. In Sri Sathya Sai district, 94 criminals were identified under the NDPS Act, in which 19 cases were registered alone in 2025, 47 kg were seized, and 64 were arrested.
