Times of India
23 July 2010
Hyderabad, India

It’s Tollywood’s B–grade actor brigade that is ruling the cocaine market in the city. With police too naming a few starlets as among the premium customers of Pat (Patrick), one of the two Ugandan peddlers who was arrested here on Wednesday, it looks like Hyderabad’s tinsel town is fast getting ‘drugged’.

Police sources reveal that post–midnight on Wednesday, Pat was flooded with calls from high–heeled socialites, including a starlet, of the city, many of whom were part of the Telugu film fraternity.

The demand in most cases was not less than 2–3 grams of potent cocaine, referred to as ‘stuff ’ by the customers, they said. Police attribute this growing drug addiction, especially among the present crop of struggling actors, to its easy availability and quick delivery by agents like Pat, at a mere Rs 3,500 per gram.

"He (Patrick) was just a phone call away and delivers at any time. It was during one such delivery assignment (staged) that we nabbed him," said a senior police official.

Pat’s foreign nationality was another factor that made him much sought after in the local film industry.

"The actor’s reputation is not at stake that way. Foreign drug peddlers like Patrick have little knowledge about the industry here, so the stars can trust them to keep their identity a secret. They were just regular customers for him," the official added.

While the trend of sniffing drugs is not new to the city, the concern lies in the fact that it has now become more of an addiction than a style statement for the Gen Y crowd. Sources from the film industry say that unlike twothree years ago when ‘doing coke’ (cocaine) was more about ‘being cool’ by Tollywood actors, today it is all about ‘getting high and psychedelic’.

"It is frustration and not fun that is driving these people to cocaine, ganja and other serious drugs. They do it once and they keep going back to it again and again," said a film industry insider. If the clientele of these peddlers expanded over the years, so has the drug market. Though Pat might be among the better known agents, there are at least a dozen more in the city who ship in such addictive pills and powder from Chennai and Goa.

The overseas dealers no longer enjoy a monopoly. Once the ‘stuff ’ is in Hyderabad, resorts, farmhouses and even guest houses on the city outskirts turn ‘snorting dens’.

To avoid public glare the Tollywood crowd stay sober at rave parties and social dos. "Once the official party deadline is over they get together in such places and treat them to a dose of drugs. They even get the drugs delivered at the venues directly," said another industry insider.