Indian drug misused in West Asia: Report

New Delhi: A made-in-India painkilling prescription drug is finding widespread popularity in the conflict and terrorism-ravaged regions of West Asia. Also known for its mood altering qualities, huge consignments of the India-made drug tramadol, a synthetic opioid analgesic that numbs pain and reduces fear, have been found in the region.

A recently released UN report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) says: “There continue to be indications of large-scale prescription drug abuse in the region. One substance of concern to several countries in West Asia is tramadol”.

The report adds: “In March, 2016, 1 million tramadol pills originating in India were seized by customs authorities at Imam Khomeini International Airport, Tehran. The pills had been falsely declared as ‘advertising and exhibition substances’”. As of now, abuse of tramadol is not subject to international control.

Interestingly, a 2016 report by the European Union’s Institute of Security Studies said: “Both captagon (an amphetamine) and tramadol are used by Daesh and other militias to boost the performance of individual fighters and increase their propensity for violence”.

In May, 2016, Greece’s financial crime unit seized a ship cargo that concealed 26 million tramadol tablets marking the biggest drug haul in Greece with an estimated market value of $13 million. The ship was en-route to Syria. And in 2015, 1,42,000 ampoules of tramadol were seized in Jordan. These consignments were from India.

A top source familiar with the narcotics trade told this newspaper that the consignments go from India to countries like Greece, Egypt, Tanzania, Iran etc. “In these countries, drug syndicates get into the act and push the consignments to the West Asia where tramadol is particularly popular. So there is a strong Indian connection,” the source said.

“Tramadol is not a banned drug in India and therefore export is allowed. While we do not have any concrete information on the drug being used by ISIS fighters, it is a widely misused drug in India,” Rajender Pal Singh, deputy director-general, Narcotics Control Bureau, told this newspaper. “We are considering to propose to put tramadol under the scheduled category,” Mr Singh added.

While making tramadol a scheduled drug will mean much stricter controls on its production, sale, and export in India, many West Asian countries’ capability to enforce legalities is limited.

The INCB report says: “The situation is further exacerbated by protracted armed conflicts in Iraq, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen, massive migration flows with ever-growing refugee populations settling in shelters and camps located in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and the vulnerability of affected populations, presenting further drug control challenges for authorities in the region”.

Historically, drug trafficking and terrorism have a close association. In Asia, the Taliban, Hizbullah and a few other outfits had invested heavily in poppy to fund their operations while al Qaeda is known to have been involved in cocaine smuggling.