Source: The Times of India

The arrest of hotelier Niraj Wadhera has re-emphasised that the drug scene in India is alive and kicking.  While the lust for a high fuels the demand for drugs, greed for big bucks drives the supply.  The impact is multi-dimensional, though.  Notes World Drug Report 2000: "The drug problem has even broader implications for the spread of infectious diseases, corruption and financing of insurgents or terrorist groups." The common drugs of recreational use in India continue to be plant based drugs such as cannabis ( in the form of marijuana, a cannabis herb, and hashish, a cannabis resin ), opiates ( opium and heroin ), and cocaine, a coca derivative.  "Heroin is particularly a favourite," says Dr Hemraj Pal, an assistant professor with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences ( AIIMS ) in New Delhi.  Dr Pal practises at the AIIMS de-addiction centre.

"Epidemiological surveys show that polydrug abuse too is common," he adds.  Whether drugs are plant based or synthetic, recreational use of most of them is on the rise.  "The abuse of licitly manufactured narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, in particular codeine based cough syrups and benzodiazepines, appears to have increased in India," notes the Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2000 ( INCB ).

Most recreational drug users are male, between 21 and 30 years old, lowly educated, employed and married, according to a recent study called Illegal Drug Market In Delhi, sponsored by the Vienna based United Nations office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention ( UNDCP ) and the Turin based United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute.

Designer drugs such as Ecstasy are fast becoming a favourite among recreational drug users, or abusers, in the US and Europe, was seized in small quantities in Goa and Himachal Pradesh ( Kullu-Manali ) recently.  Earlier, amphetamine-type stimulants ( ATS ) were seized in Manipur, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh in much larger numbers.  Recreational drug users in India are also catching up on other synthetic drugs such as benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, anti-histamines and codeine-based cough syrups.

Intravenous drugs are particularly popular in northeast India and the metropolises.  Especially in Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, recreational drug users are switching from taking heroin to injecting synthetic opioids, such as Spasmoproxyvon and Proxyvon.

These observations more or less confirm the conclusions derived from the analysis of the records of 2,50,000 people, who were registered with NGO-run drug treatment centres, in 1998-99.  Forty per cent of those registered for de-addiction were alcohol dependent, and many combined alcohol with other recreational drug use, says UNDCP.

Estimates for the northeastern states are particularly alarming.  The number of recreational drug users is estimated to be about 50,000 ( 34,500 intravenous ) in Manipur, 24,700 in Nagaland and 13,800 ( 3,000 intravenous ) in Mizoram, says UNDCP.

It=EDs not only the numbers in the region that are worrisome, but also the nature of the use, which has serious consequences in the form of spread of hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.  While screening of intravenous drug users ( IDUs ) for HIV between 1986 and 1989 did not show any infections, the tests between 1989 and 1990 showed 54.2 per cent of the respondents ( out of a sample of 1,412 ) were infected with HIV.  The percentage only grew in subsequent sero-surveillance tests between 1991 and 1993, showing 64-73 per cent of IDUs testing HIV positive.  Later studies had more alarming results.  A 1996 study conducted among IDUs in Chrachandpur revealed a high incidence of Hepatitis B ( 43.83 per cent ) and Hepatitis C ( 98 per cent ), along with HIV infection ( 78.64 per cent ), notes UNDCP.

"The reasons for the new trend include easy availability of psychotropic drugs over the counter and their low prices,=EE explains Dr Rajat Ray, an additional professor with AIIMS, who has worked extensively on recreational drug use.  Adds K Rajan, 32, an intravenous drug user: "Besides, the quality of non-intravenous drugs has deteriorated.  In contrast, intravenous drugs offer a quick high."

Besides, India is the largest producer of licit poppy, though its cultivation is limited to the three states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.  While the Central Bureau of Narcotics licenses and regulates licit opium cultivation in India, it=EDs suspected that some of the produce gets into illicit channels.  India is also the sole producer of opium gum in the world.  Opium gum is the source of alkaloids such as thebane and codeine.

More importantly, India is located between Southeast Asia ( the Golden Triangle ) and Southwest Asia ( the Golden Crescent ).  Between them, the two blocks are estimated to produce 90 per cent of the world=EDs illicit opium.  Since India shares long borders with Pakistan in the northwest, Myanmar in the northeast, Bangladesh in the east and Nepal in the north and even Sri Lanka is a mere 40 miles from southern India, traffickers find it easy to smuggle drugs into and through India.

"India is not only a transit country, but also a destination," says Karan K Sharma, deputy director with the Narcotics Control Board.  The INCB report too adds: "While India has traditionally been used as a transit country by smugglers of southwest Asian heroin, during the past year, a number of makeshift clandestine heroin laboratories have been detected and destroyed in the country.  The illicitly manufactured heroin might have been intended for use within India as there is widespread heroin abuse in the country."

It=EDs not only one-way smuggling into India.  Smuggling of licit as well as illicit drugs out of the country is also well established.  The INCB report points out: "Licitly manufactured psychotropic substances, mainly diazepam and nitrazepam, continue to be smuggled out of India, not only into Nepal, but also into the Russian federation and countries in central Asia."

Similarly, methaqualone ( mandrax ) tablets of Indian origin have been seized in South Africa.  This despite the fact that there has been a substantial decline in the manufacture of mandrax in the wake of the dismantling of illicit manufacturing facilities, adds the INCB report.

Besides, precursor chemicals manufactured legally for export to pharmaceutical companies worldwide too are suspected to be getting into illicit channels, even across borders into Myanmar and Pakistan.  There have been particularly large seizures of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine along the common border between India and Myanmar.  India is a licit manufacturer of 15 precursor chemicals, including acetic anhydride, ephedrine, pseudo-ephedrine, anthra-nilic acid and n-acetylanthranilic acid.

This despite the fact that the Indian authorities have progressively strengthened their control system for precursors by establishing a number of legislative and administrative provisions to prevent diversion of controlled chemicals from both international trade and domestic distribution channels, notes the INCB report.  Evidently, the drug monitoring and regulation mechanism too needs a pep pill.