The Hindu Business Line : Narcotics body urges India to enforce laws more strictly

THE International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has said that in most countries in South Asia, licitly manufactured narcotic drugs are diverted to the illicit markets with the abuse of cough syrup, smuggled out of India, being reported in Bangladesh and Nepal is the case in point.

In its 2003 annual report released today, the Vienna-based independent monitoring body for the implementation of the United Nations international drug control conventions said that though India, a large manufacturer of pharmaceuticals has stringent laws to control their manufacture and distribution, still requires "improvements in the monitoring of compliance with the law, particularly with regard to prescription requirements."

It said Codeine-based cough syrups, such as phensedyl, are sold without medical prescription and their sales, according to surveys of pharmacists in India are among the highest compared with other pharmaceuticals. Again, it said, despite controls and periodically conducted training programmes on precursor control for law enforcement officials, diversions of precursor chemicals, including acetic anhydride and ephedrine and pseudo ephedrine from licit channels supervene in India. It said in a recent joint operation, drug law enforcement agencies in China, India and the US arrested a total of 37 traffickers, as they were to embark on a larger-scale trafficking bid involving amphetamine-type stimulants.

While appreciating the Indian Government's law enforcement agencies in foiling an attempt to set up a laboratory for illicit methamphetamine manufacture, the INBC urges India to maintain its vigilance, "since this case might indicate a new trend in the illicit manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants in India, one of the world's largest licit manufacturers of precursors for such stimulants."

It said in India, lack of uniformity among States in monitoring compliance with the law concerning domestic distribution contributes to the increasing abuse of psychotropic substances. Thus, pharmaceuticals containing psychotropic substances are easily available in India, even without prescriptions, as chemists, poorly informed about the abuse liability of the drugs, believe that commonly prescribed substances such as some of the benzodiazepines are generally harmless and therefore dispense them without prescription.

The reports said the most commonly abused benzodiazepines are alprazolam, diaszepam and nitrazepam. These benzodiazepines are also abused in conjunction with heroin to enhance its effects.

A substantial percentage of patients admitted to addiction treatment centres had previously abused psychotropic substances by injection.

Even as the INCB notes the continuous efforts of the Indian authorities to maintain effective control over international trade in psychotropic substances, it urges the Government to enforce laws more effectively at the retail level in order to prevent illicit sales of psychotropic substances.

"Efforts should focus on building the awareness of and educating pharmacists, as well as the general public, about the abuse liability of psychotropic substances," it said.

The smuggling of methaqualone of Indian origin into southern and eastern Africa continues and in 2002, seizures of methaqualone in India totalled more than 11 tonnes, the highest level since the mid-1990s. The main chemicals used for the manufacture of methaqalone are controlled in India, but traffickers might still have obtained these chemicals or are using substitute chemicals for such illicit manufacture. Hence, Indian authorities should investigate those developments, which are most disturbing considering that the illicit manufacture of methaqualone had almost ceased at the end of the 1990s, INCB said.

In a foreword to this year's report, INCB President, Mr Philip O. Emafo, said that while measures to reduce harm in drug-dependent persons should not be seen as being in contradiction with the global drug control treaties, some so-called "harm reduction" approaches are not what they seem to be in that they cause more harm than they purport to reduce. "Harm reduction approaches should not be seen to condone or even promote drug abuse but should be seen to contribute to reduction in the abuse of drugs", he said. In this regard, the report said governments need to adopt measures that might decrease the sharing of hypodermic needles among injecting drug abusers in order limit the spread of HIV/AIDs.

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