The stringent checking mechanism introduced by the Drugs Control Department to monitor the illegal supply of Tranquilliser drugs in the district is facing a setback with the suppliers turning their attention to drug dealers outside the State. As per information received by the police, students are the key targets of such suppliers.
The inter-State link in the trade came to the notice of the city police when they arrested a man on Sunday with Tranquilliser drugs. The trader was mainly dealing with Spasmo Proxyvon, a painkiller widely being misused by drug addicts. As per the information received by the police, he was one of the links operating in the illegal transportation of drugs from Karnataka to Kerala to evade the tight regulation of the Drugs Control Department.
It was after noticing the frequent media reports and police action that the department recently strengthened their surveillance. Soon after convening a district-level meeting of drug inspectors, the department had issued a directive to all the regional drug distributors in the district to strictly follow the legal formalities while selling out molecules containing sedative substances.
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As a result, the submission of drug purchase list on a monthly-basis was made mandatory. Also, they started checking the sales records to find out suspicious increase in trade or incidents of bulk purchase by anonymous persons without proper billing. In the action plan, they listed 12 important drugs and strictly monitored the supply of all medicines containing the three molecules — Spasmo Proxyvon, Codeine Phosphate, and Alprazolam.
A senior officer attached to the Intelligence wing of the Drugs Control Department said the inter-State Tranquilliser drug trade could be brought under control only through coordination between the police and drug inspectors. He said the existing checking mechanism over would be totally meaningless if the inter-State drug transport was not monitored properly.
The officials attached to the Drugs Control Department said they were not getting timely information from the police regarding the seized drugs or the whereabouts of the persons involved.
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“In the case reported on Sunday, we were not intimated the details related to the drugs seized and the person involved. The seized drug is a legally banned item in the market and action can be initiated against several others after tracing the batch number of the medicine,” they said.