NEW DELHI: The country's narcotics crisis is no longer driven solely by drugs smuggled from Afghanistan or manufactured in jungle laboratories in Myanmar. Increasingly, it is fuelled by pharmaceutical drugs produced in licensed factories in India, sold through poorly regulated chemist shops and consumed by millions of young people.
The figures in the Narcotics Control Bureau's (NCB) Annual Report 2025, released this week, point to a sharp rise in the consumption of codeine-based cough syrups, prescription opioids and sleeping pills.
According to the report, pharmaceutical products, particularly codeine-based cough syrups (CBCS), tramadol tablets, buprenorphine and alprazolam, accounted for nearly 75 per cent of all drugs seized by the NCB in 2025.
Across the country, seizures of pharmaceutical drugs by all Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (DLEAs) reached 2,37,390 kg in 2025, marking a 77 per cent increase from 2021.
The report noted that enforcement against the diversion of pharmaceutical drugs has intensified, yet the volume of seizures continues to rise. Seizures increased from 1,34,327 kg in 2021 to a peak of 2,43,111 kg in 2024 before declining marginally to 2,37,390 kg in 2025.
Punjab, already known for heroin trafficking through the Golden Crescent route, is now witnessing what the report describes as a "dangerous second wave" driven by pharmaceutical opioids. In 2025 alone, authorities seized 8,95,508 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup in the state—nearly nine lakh bottles in a single year.
"The ready availability of cheap, legally manufactured drugs like Buprenorphine, Tramadol and Alprazolam through non-compliant pharmacies has made diverted pharmaceuticals an accessible substitute," the report stated.
A senior IPS officer, commenting on the findings, said that in Punjab, "anyone can walk in and buy what should require a strict prescription. There is no smuggling network—it is just the chemist shop at the corner of the town."
The report further noted that India now lies at the intersection of four major international drug trafficking corridors: Golden Crescent heroin from the west, Golden Triangle methamphetamine from the northeast, Andean cocaine arriving by sea, and Balkan-route heroin funnelled through Gulf airports.
It also highlighted a sharp rise in drone-based trafficking along the India-Pakistan border, with 305 drone-related incidents recorded in 2025, representing a 100-fold increase since 2021.
According to the report, darknet marketplaces are increasingly being used to deliver drugs ordered through encrypted applications and paid for using cryptocurrency. The NCB has registered 110 darknet-related cases between 2021 and 2025 and acknowledged that "traditional investigative methods often fall short."
The report added that all law enforcement agencies together registered 1,48,063 drug-related cases in 2025 and arrested 1,83,675 people, an 89 per cent increase in arrests compared with the previous year. A total of 747 foreign nationals were among those arrested.
Despite the increased enforcement, the country has also witnessed a rise in the consumption of codeine-based cough syrups, prescription opioids and sleeping pills.
The IPS officer further observed that compared to the vast number of chemist shops operating across the country, as well as the limited number of drug inspectors, the strength of the enforcement machinery remains negligible.
