How a painkiller manufactured in India is aiding drug abuse elsewhere

New Delhi: The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), has said that over the recent years, India has emerged as the centre for manufacturing of tramadol, a pain killer which is widely used as a narcotic substance.

Globally, most of the tramadol, which is not an internationally controlled substance, that was seized from 2013 to 2017 was reported to have originated in India, it said.

Releasing its annual report for 2019 here on Thursday, the INCB said, "Available data suggest that in recent years India has emerged as the centre of manufacturing of tramadol destined for clandestine markets."

In April 2018, India had placed tramadol among nationally controlled substances under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

Available data indicate that tramadol being used for non-medical purposes in Africa is illicitly manufactured in South Asia. India was the source of 87 per cent of tramadol seized in Ghana in 2017, the report said.

According to the report, India is a significant source of trafficked, falsified, substandard or illicitly manufactured products branded and marketed as tramadol that are seized worldwide.

Following the changes in control measures in India, experts in Ghana and Nigeria noted a significant decline in large seizures of tramadol and a corresponding increase in prices for the tablets in the illicit market, it said.

"The diversion of controlled precursors, in particular ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, from licit to illicit channels has continued in India," the INCB said.

Quoting reports of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India, it said about 1.8 tonnes of pseudoephedrine was confiscated in Noida in a single operation conducted on May 11, 2019.

"This was the largest seizure on record in the country. There continued to be reports of seizures of pharmaceutical preparations containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine trafficked from India to Myanmar for the purpose of precursor extraction," it added.

According to the UN body, "The increasing quantity of illicit opium and poppy straw seized and the area eradicated underline the severity of the problem in India".

Similarly, illicit cultivation of cannabis continued to be a challenge for law enforcement agencies in India, it said.

"An analysis of data from 2010 to 2017 shows that India is among those countries worldwide with the greatest extent of illicit cannabis cultivation and amount of production. Indian drug enforcement authorities eradicated 1,980 hectares of illicit cannabis cultivation in 2018, which was substantially less than the 3,446 ha of eradication in 2017," the report said.

"In 2018, the largest total quantity of cannabis herb seized by a country in South Asia was that of India (266.5 tonnes or 79 per cent of the sub-region's total seizures), followed by Bangladesh (60.3 tonnes or 18 per cent)," it added.

The report was presented by INCB member Jagjit Pavadia.

NCB Director-General Rakesh Asthana and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence DG Balesh Kumar highlighted the achievements of their departments in reducing the demand and supply of narcotic drugs in the country.

The INCB is an independent and quasi-judicial control organ established within the framework of the UN Drug Control Conventions and is mandated to evaluate compliance by UN member states.