DRUG TRADE IN INDIA ON A NEW HIGH

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.