HYDERABAD: The prevalence of new psychotropic substances, which have emerged in the past two decades is causing new challenges to all drug law enforcement agencies in India as the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) has several limitations. This issue was highlighted at a programme on anti-drug abuse held in the city on Saturday by the city’s civil court legal service authority.
“Although NDPS has been effective in controlling illegal drug menace in India to a certain extent, it has failed to deal with the newly emerging psychotropic substances,” said Gunaseela, assistant director, Telangana State Forensic Science Laboratory.
She said, “There are over 1,000 new psychotropic substances which come in different forms, but the NDPS Act has less than 250 controlled substances in its list. For the rest, there is no suitable law and hence, they are legal. These synthetic drugs can have several side effects and their abuse can be fatal”.
Physicians are prescribing these drugs and the population is not educated enough to understand its consequences on the human body, she said.