The National Policy on Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances unveiled by the Government for the first time in the country's history is a timely step at a time when substance and drug abuse by gullible young people goes on unchecked in major cities.
One need not ferret out unusual places to know the vice dens across the country as even in the Capital in places near New Delhi Railway station or near the traffic intersection at the busy Bharakhamba road one can spot dishevelled and wiry youths mostly from the poorest strata of society huddling together and enjoying their smack. Though cases of such occurrences among school-going or college-going adolescents do not quite often surface in the open, the spoiled brats from this section as also upper echelons of society have their own share of junkies and addicts in instances of substance abuse.
It is no doubt delectable to note that the policy bids fair to curb the menace of drug abuse and is replete with provisions for treatment, rehabilitation and social re-integration of victims of drug abuse. It is equally satisfactory to note that the policy plumps for production of Concentrate of Poppy Straw (CPS) in India by a company or body corporate which would facilitate India to retain its status of a traditional supplier of Opiate Raw Material (ORM) to the rest of the world.
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The policy proclaims the intent of the government to tackle all problems pertaining to drugs while ensuring simultaneously that their availability for legitimate medical and scientific purposes does not suffer. It is a telling commentary on the sad state of inequality in the availability of pain relief drugs between the developed and developing countries that "more than 80 per cent of the world's population has no or insufficient access to pain relief drugs and are suffering unnecessary pain because of it".
Indubitably, the government's new narcotics policy is a salutary statement but a reality check is in order. In its last annual report, the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) maintained that in the past 10 years, progress in drug abuse prevention has been 'modest at best' and demanded governments the world over to make availability of narcotic drugs for medical purposes a priority of public health issue. "More than 80 per cent of the world's population has no or insufficient access to pain relief drugs and are suffering unnecessary pain because of it", the Board rightly rued.
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It is widely acknowledged that controlled substances are indispensable to the treatment of non-communicable diseases and relief of cognate pain and hence requisite medical use could improve the quality of life of patients. For instance, narcotic drugs such as opioids are needed in the palliative care of cancer patients while psychotropic substances are a basic ingredient in the treatment of mental illnesses. It is also a good augury that the new policy lays due emphasis on adequate access to morphine and other opioids necessary for palliative care, a strategy to address street peddlers of drugs, periodic surveys of drug abuse to gauge the extent, pattern and nature of drug abuse in the country and recognition to de-addiction centres. All these measures are over-due as the menace is glaringly staring across big cities and in semi-urban centres.
Be that as it may, the problem brooks no delay in finding a durable solution since with changing cultural values, heightened economic stress and diminishing supportive bonds from nuclear families particularly when both the parents go out to work in India now, the initiation into substance abuse at an impressionable age among adolescents is no doubt on the ascendant. While a research from an NGO citing a UN report estimates that one million heroin addicts had been registered in India a couple of years ago, unofficially there are as many as five million with more of revision of the former numbers in the intervening years with new and designer-drugs catching the caprice of the youth. Cannabis, heroin and Indian-produced pharmaceutical drugs are the most frequently abused drugs in the country. There are clear signs that cannabis use might be associated with an increased risk of psychotic disorders and schizophrenia.
INCB President Prof.Hamid Ghodse, while addressing a high-level meet of the General Assembly on Non-communicable diseases in New York in September 2011, said that the Board stood ready to foster and implement national policies and to build capacity for effective drug regulatory systems at national level.
But the Drugs and Cosmetics (Amendment) Bill 2007 to propose the creation of a central drug authority with the sole remit for grant of drug manufacturing licences remains in limbo for close to five years! The Amendment provision, if put in place, would help reduce the countrywide variation in surveillance and law enforcement that would effectively end drug counterfeiting by centralising licensing for the manufacture and sale of drugs which today are under the control of individual State governments. Reports of fake drugs sold in states and substance abuse by adolescents would be a thing of the past if the regulatory machinery is robust to avert flagrant misuse.
As India is proud to proclaim its demographic dividend, the deplorable lack of due primary health to millions and the burgeoning menace of drug and substance abuse by not only poor but affluent younger generation cannot be brushed under the carpet. It is time the authorities beefed up pending legislative bills on this front. A wealthy India as it aspires to be in the developed country league by 2020 should also be a healthy Bharat.
geeyes@thehindu.co.in