CHENNAI: Twenty-nine-year-old Vivek (name changed) walks into Bawa Medicals at Medavakkam. The man at the counter reaches for a familiar box. “How many strips,” he asks. “Seven,” Vivek replies and procures one more strip which he safely pockets. In broad daylight without any hassle, Vivek has procured eight strips of Spasmo Proxyvon, a Schedule H sedative usually prescribed for women suffering from acute period pain, in under a minute.
Outside, stoned youngsters in a car eagerly wait with water packets, ready to pop these analgesics. All of them are men and needless to say, they aren’t on their period. Being a Schedule H drug, the pills should be sold only with a prescription from a registered medical practitioner that has to photocopied, filed along with the time of sale. However, this particular medical shop has conveniently bypassed those requirements and has become Vivek’s regular drug dealer.
While, pharmacy chains like Med Plus and Apollo Medicals refuse to sell Schedule H drugs without prescriptions, smaller medical shops wanting to make a quick buck, feed and nurture prescription drug abuse.
“Valium and Zoloft used to be the favourites of drug addicts but now, since tabs are kept on the sale of such psychiatric drugs, smaller shops tend to sell them heavy sedatives like Nitrosun and analgesics like Spasmo Proxyvon,” said a pharmacist who refused to sell Schedule H drugs when Express posed as a customer. “Since they don’t pack a punch like psychiatric drugs, they increase the dosage to compensate,” he said.
“Prescription/over the counter drug abuse is just as bad as being hooked to party drugs like heroin, cocaine and marijuana,” said Dr Anand Balan, a psychiatrist specialising in de-addiction. He says that over time, users become dependent and show withdrawal symptoms on stopping. Since they are easily available, they in a way are more harmful than banned drugs like LSD and MDMA (ecstasy ). Side effects like dizziness, restlessness, eating disorders and loss of libido are common.
The warning on Wockhardt’s Spasmo Proxyvon which directs user not to use continuously for more than 5 days did not stop Vivek who has been popping at least five pills a day since 2010. He experiences all of these side effects.
Another user, Maria (name changed) who tried to quit claims to have experienced withdrawal symptoms like diarrhoea, body pain and muscle spasms. Both refuse to think about long term effects of continually cross-fading on alcohol, marijuana and Spasmo Proxyvon.
“The long term effects vary from one individual to another, however abuse of Spasmo Proxyvon is known to cause infertility, nervous breakdowns and epileptic attacks,” said a private medical practitioner from Chennai. Dextropropoxyphene, the generic component of Spasmo Proxyvon, is used to treat a wide variety of illnesses from diarrhoea to painful period cramps and is hard to scrutinise sales. There are regular raids conducted by the State Drug Control Department.
“In a period of one year, from April 2016-April 2017 we registered 200 cases against medical shops selling drugs without prescriptions,” said Sivabalan, Director of Drug Control, Government of Tamil Nadu. The offenders are charged under Section 29 (d) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and are usually asked to pay a fine of `20,000. However, small shops, with small financial trails rarely attract the eyes of agencies.