Though the teachers are fully aware of its usage, the drug still makes its way to school children as young as 9 through a big network of suppliers.
Cool Lip, a smokeless tobacco product, found in a student's bag in a Corporation school in Tamil Nadu. (Laasya Shekhar/South First)
Picture this scene: It’s 4 pm on a sunny afternoon at a co-ed Corporation school in Vyasarpadi. As you glance at the children in the playground, it appears as if they are innocently passing around a packet of chips. But take a second look and you’ll realise something more troubling. Hidden inside that seemingly harmless packet is a dangerous tobacco product — Cool Lip.
Prepared from tobacco leaves and spices, Cool Lip — a transparent, less than 2 cm packet — can keep a person intoxicated for short bouts of time, varying from half hour to two hours, depending on the age.
The manufacturer of Cool Lip puts out a profile that the tobacco product is “prepared from hand-picked tobacco leaves and rich spices, natural aroma of sandalwood oil and a plethora of floral essences that would literally help you chill in life”.
A smokeless tobacco product, it delivers a hit in less than a minute of placing it between the teeth and the lip.
Despite being banned in several Indian states, including Tamil Nadu, Cool Lip has become a disturbingly common presence in government schools across Chennai.
Even the teachers and management are fully aware of its usage, constantly struggling to clamp down on it. But through a big network of suppliers, this inebriating product finds its way into the school bags of children as young as nine.
To truly comprehend the gravity of the situation, you only need to observe the aftermath.
Strewn packets of used Cool Lip litter the corridors, staircases, and even the restrooms of a government school in Kannagi Nagar, serving as a shocking testament to the unchecked audacity exhibited by the students.
We visited three schools in the city — a Corporation school, a government school, and an Adi Dravidar welfare school — to understand that Cool Lip is the first chosen inebriant among students of both genders.
Cool Lip is a smokeless tobacco brand available in various other names. (Supplied)
In the playground of the Corporation school, when we asked a Class 11 student about the usage of Cool Lip, he casually got a few packets of the product from a Class 6 student to show us. “I don’t use it anymore,” said Ganesh*, aged 16 years, who quit the product after developing stains on his teeth. He started using it when he was 13.
“You have to try it at least two times to get used to it. I felt nauseous initially. But the third time, I sang random songs and slept off for hours in school. You feel dizzy initially and it leaves you in a happy mood for half an hour to one hour,” recalled Ganesh.
“I am so tempted to try it again. I just smell it when I am tempted,” Ganesh said.
“Cool Lip is used by at least 65 percent of the students. The school has a strength of 400 students,” said the headmaster of the Corporation school we visited.
At a government school in Kannagi Nagar, 14-year-old Komala* confessed to using Cool Lip. “I stole a few packets from my father. I have been using it for a few months now,” she said, adding that the product makes it easier for her to go through the boring classes.
“I crack jokes… about my teachers, my parents, and almost everything. My friends laugh for hours,” Komala told South First.
At an Adi Dravidar school in Vyasarpadi, the headmaster checks the bags of students every day to curb the entry of the product. But the dilapidated restroom leaves the headmaster no choice but to let the students out during breaks.
“They buy the product from the nearby shops during the break,” the headmaster told South First.
Cool Lip is sold in vegetable shops and in stationery shops, within a kilometre radius of these schools. The shopkeepers sell it only to their regular customers or when you utter the code word — weapon and chocolate.
A mega packet of Cool Lip, which contains 25 pouches, costs ₹50. While there are no manufacturing units in Tamil Nadu, according to Jawahar, Assistant Commissioner, Poonamallee Police Station, the product reaches the state from Haryana and Delhi via Bengaluru. In the wholesale market, the product costs less than ₹30.
The product is also sold online. A product by Cool Lip Filter Tabbaq, a brand that boasts of using rich spices and natural aroma of oil, 13 pouches (112.32 grams) of the inebriant cost ₹221.
The use of Cool Lip by students in government schools has not only raised concerns among teachers, but also sparked a deep worry about the potential health implications. Teachers observe shorter attention spans, as well as a rise in teeth decay and stomach ulcers among the users.
According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, the use of smokeless tobacco (SLT) like Cool Lip can have severe oral health effects.
These include an increased risk of oral cancer, leukoplakia (thickened white patches on gums), and erythroplakia (a condition that affects the soft tissue lining of your mouth and throat).
Under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the Tamil Nadu government imposed a ban on manufacturing, storage, transport, and sale of chewable tobacco products such as gutka and paan masala.
This is, however, a temporary ban that needs to be extended every year. The latest order came into force from 23 May, 2023, after the Food Safety Commissioner notified it.
Used pouches of Cool Lip strewn across the corridors of a government school. (Laasya Shekhar/South First)
The law has serious lapses. “Since the ban is temporary, it is not taken seriously,” said S Cyril Alexander, State Convenor, the Tamil Nadu People’s Forum for Tobacco Control (TNPFTC).
As per the recent order, the officials from the food safety and the police departments should collaboratively conduct raids on the traders. However, the ground reality is different.
“Both the departments are not interested because the sale of tobacco products under the food safety order is just a bailable offence, not a punishable offence,” an official with the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department told South First on condition of anonymity.
Only when Tamil Nadu introduces a permanent ban would the supply and distribution networks of Cool Lip and similar products come down.
“The state could utilise the Tamil Nadu Public Health Act to ban the chewable tobacco and nicotine products completely. Traders selling the products in the vicinity of schools should be slapped with the provisions of Juvenile Justice Act, 2015,” said Alexander.
Under the amended Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, stringent punishment can be imposed on those selling tobacco products or cigarettes to minors.
“The offender faces a jail term of seven years and a fine of ₹1 lakh against the earlier ₹200 fine imposed under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA),” according to a report by The Indian Express.
However, on the ground, the reality is so different.
It just takes a matter of a day or two for the offender to come out on bail and pay a meagre fine of ₹1,000. They change the modus operandi and renew the business again as they are booked not under the Juvenile Justice Act, but under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
South First sent a mail to the Cool Lip Filter Tabbaq to get their side of the story. There has been no response yet.
(*Names of the students have been changed to maintain anonymity)
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