New Delhi: The government may make it mandatory for packages containing narcotics to carry a barcode while it mulls building a portal to identify, track and monitor the illegal sale of narcotics.
In view to recent cases of abuse of narcotics meant for medicinal use, the government is devising a mechanism to ensure the tracking and traceability of these drugs.Â
A QR code will allow the government to identify the manufacturer of these drugs, said two officials familiar aware of the matter.
The government is also exploring ways to track inter-state movement of these drugs, and identify the sellers and distributors.
Abuse control
This comes against the backdrop of the home ministry writing to the health ministry last month, asking it to take measures to control the abuse of narcotic drugs being used for non-medical purposes. Â Â
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Following this, Union health secretary Punya Salila Srivastava chaired a meeting with the states and UTs to review the matter and take remedial measures.
“The government is focusing to control the misuse of narcotics drugs. Last month, home ministry wrote to the health secretary that it is a matter of serious concern as narcotics drugs are being diverted for other than medical purposes and being misused. So, the ask was to take all measures to monitor the narcotics drugs within the supply chain and a system needs to be established for monitoring and tracing of the narcotics drugs,” said the first official.Â
“A meeting was held by the health secretary on 24 February with the state governments to sensitize them. State/UT governments shared their best practices, challenges and measures. One of the major challenges of the State drug controllers, they shared, is that there is no flow of information on when narcotics drugs are sold from state to another, who are distributors, dealers, or traders for such drugs. State governments gave multiple suggestions to put barcode or QR code on narcotics drugs and set up a portal for monitoring and tracing of these drugs. These were the outcomes of this meeting and suggestion will further be deliberated,” the official added.Â
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Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances have several medical and scientific uses. However, they are abused and trafficked.
“The government has adopted a zero tolerance policy against drug trafficking to curb the menace of drugs. States like Punjab, Telangana, Goa, Jharkhand etc participated and representative of NCB was also there in the meeting. Barcoding will help in identifying the drug and how genuine it is. But tracking and monitoring will only be checked through some application or portal. However, it is very early as the roadmap is still being worked out,” said the second official.
The official said that every state has its own regulatory mechanism. To be on the same page, there has to be uniformity and proper coordination to control the drug abuse.
Dr Atul Ambekar, Professor at National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, AIIMS said, “In India, the biggest problem is easy accessibility of drugs without prescription and most of the controlled drugs are being misused other than medical purposes. So, if government is planning more stringent measures and wants to keep a track on monitoring and tracking of narcotics drugs within its supply chain is very important step and much needed.”
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A 2019 report on substance abuse in India published by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and central government said about 2.5 million people in the country were addicted to pharmaceutical opioids.
On 2 March, union home minister Amit Shah wrote on X that 29 drug traffickers have been convicted in 12 cases across India. “We pledge to continue combating the drug menace with ruthless and meticulous investigations to build a drug-free Bharat.”
Last month, the government banned the production and export of the combination tapentadol and carisoprodol due to drug abuse in West African countries. According to the health ministry, this drug combination was unapproved and manufactured by a Mumbai-based pharma company. Last year, Karnataka law-enforcing agencies seized 1,720 tapentadol tablets in Bengaluru.
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Queries sent to the health ministry and home ministry spokesperson remained unanswered.
