Local de–addiction counsellors are not alarmed by the finding of poppy cultivation near Shirur. They said that it will not increase the number of addicts as raw opium is not of much use until and unless it is processed.

According to them, the use of whitener and snake–bite addiction, abuse of cannabis group drugs like charas (hashish), ganja (marijuana) and cocaine is found more common compared to that of opium and other narcotics of poppy group, like heroin and brown sugar. Manaswardhan de–addiction centre counsellor, Triveni Chiplunkar said, “The number of patients coming to us daily for drug addiction has increased from 30–35 to 80–85. As per my knowledge, the infrastructure and technology needed to manufacture narcotic by products from raw opium is not really well developed in India.”

Utthaan project director, Tushar Sampat said, “The distribution network of narcotics is so strong and well established that it will put any networking company to shame. Raw opium is not much of use and the processing is very important to increase its toxicity level.”

Muktangan de–addiction centre founder and social activist, Anil Awachat said, “Opium or poppy seeds by themselves are not objects of addiction, but it’s by–products like brown sugar and heroine.”