HYDERABAD: It looks like cocaine but isn’t. A powder which resembles cocaine (highly addictive, illegal recreational drug) was recently seized by the police department from an alleged drug peddler in the city. It was brought into the narcotics department of Telangana Forensic Science Laboratory (TFSL) for testing. Investigations by the laboratory revealed that the powder was a prototypical antipsychotic medication, sold in pharmacies as prescription medicine.
“The medicine has a similar effect to that of cocaine. Even though, it has a similar chemical composition with a few alterations to that of cocaine it is not listed under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) Act,” said an official of the TFS who wished not be named. As a result, the alleged drug peddler from whom the powdered substance was seized cannot be prosecuted for its possession.
The NDPS Act which prohibits a person from producing, manufacturing, cultivating, possessing, selling, purchasing, transporting, storing, and/or consuming any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, has several limitations.
“I am sure he is not the only peddler selling such legal substances which people abuse. There are many. Because, that’s how it starts. Drug traffickers are intelligent enough to find out loopholes in the government and that is how they prevail,” said the TFSL official.
The prevalence of such ‘new psychotropic substances’ or so-called ‘legal highs’ which have emerged in the past two decades is causing new challenges to all the Drug Law Enforcement Agencies in India.
The TSFL official who did not want to be named says, “There are over 1,000 new psychotropic substances which have emerged in different forms, like prescribed pills and synthetic substances that are not under the purview of NDPS Act.” The NDPS Act only has less than 250 substances in its list that are banned.
“We have recently added Tramadol (opioid sold in the form of medicine) after we received reports of drug abuse from state drug law enforcement agencies,” said Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Zonal Director for Southern India, Sunil Kumar Sinha.
Need forensic experts to identify new-age drugs
New psychotropic substances cannot be identified unless the police department and drug enforcement agencies in the State involve ‘on-field forensic experts’, opined an official of the State Forensic Laboratory. “We need forensic experts on the field or at least at places where the drug raids are being conducted,” she said