A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released recently pegs India as the largest consumer of heroin in South Asia and experts believe that there is a surge of pharmaceutical drug abuse in the country.
"Easily available pharmaceutical drugs like Spasmo Proxyvon, Tramadol and Ketamine make them the most abused drugs in North-East India. Addicts take as much as 24 injections a day," says Dr Chwand Lung Muana, Project Officer, Shalom, an NGO for HIV and AIDS in Mizoram.
Such drugs are readily available at any chemist shop and are legally prescribed even by premier health institutes such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for pain management, especially to pregnant women and women during mensturation, adds Dr Muana who participated in the launch of UNODC campaign "Think Health not Drugs."
"Globally, the number of people using amphetamine-type stimulants - estimated at around 30-40 million - is soon likely to exceed the number of opiate and cocaine users combined. There is also evidence of increasing abuse of prescription drugs," states UNODC's World Drug Report 2010.
In India, easy availability and least legal check makes prescription drugs, especially for pain management the latest hit among the drug addicts, says Prasada Rao, Special Advisor to Executive Director, UNAIDS.
The addiction to legal pharma drugs have also paved the way for an HIV explosion in the country, says Asha, a former project member of UNODC in Punjab.
"Almost 20-30 per cent of such addicts in North-East are already HIV positive. They are instrumental in spreading the menace," says Dr Muana.
The growing dependency over pharma drugs has also trapped people in one of the most affluent states - Punjab - of the country, a state which experts say is home to an abundant supply of drugs.
Ajit Singh, co-founder Vidya Mandir, an initiative for education and sensitisation towards drugs abuse, cites the case of Maqboolpura near Amritsar also known as the land of widows where the majority of male members have succumbed to excessive drug usage.
"A compounder regularly bicycles to Maqboolpura and injects addictive pharma drugs to people using the same syringe. This, obviously has paved the way for an HIV explosion."
Former UNODC project member Asha points out,"This is not just one such Maqboolpura in Punjab. There are hundreds of such villages, where drugs flow in abundance."
Abuse of prescribed pharma drugs is prevalent without government and legal checks, claim experts.
"Prescription drugs for pain management are used without legal prescription. There is an indispensable angle of crime associated with drug usage. It is the prevalence of criminal organisations and drug mafias that is driving the market for drugs," says Cristina Albertin, UNODC's South Asia representative.
Emphasising on the measures to control the menace, Dr Muana says the need of the hour is to ensure that adequate primary interventions such as sensitising youth and empowering them through counselling and advocacy is required to restrain them from drug abuse.
"Drug abuse of any sort is not an individual problem. It is a social problem as an addict can create curiosity among non users thereby multiplying the number of users. A collective onus is required to curb the issue from its roots," says Ajit Singh.
"Both the Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers should take collaborative measures to check the rapidly growing abuse of pharmaceutical drugs," adds Prasada Rao of UNAIDS.
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