Kochi, April 29 -- "Life had become a disorder," rued the 26-year-old, who requested to keep his name anonymous. The resident of Cheranallur in Ernakulam district of Kerala packed his bags in the first week of March and voluntarily admitted himself into Mukti Sadan, a Catholic Church-run de-addiction centre, 16 kilometres away because he knew he needed to get his life back on track.

"In 2019, I smoked my first cigarette. Soon, I was drinking liquor regularly with my friends, mostly white rum. Afterwards, I began using ganja and in the past year, shifted to MDMA. Locally, we call it 'podi' (powder in Malayalam). It was during a wedding where an older friend introduced it, and I tried it out of curiosity. For the next six hours, I felt ext...