CAUTION: The following review of the regional drug situation has been excerpted, as background information only, from the 1995 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board, which is under embargo until 9 a.m. (European Time) on 28 February 1996. The Board annually assesses the drug situation in each region, based on information obtained from a variety of sources, including Government authorities. No part of the report or this excerpt may be used before its official release:
Of the six States in South Asia, four are parties to the 1961 Convention and three are parties to the 1971 Convention. All of the States in the region except Maldives are parties to the 1988 Convention.
Subregional Cooperation
The Board appreciates the increasing cooperation between members of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). The SAARC Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, aimed at ensuring the proper implementation of the provisions of the 1988 Convention, has been ratified by all States in the region.
Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are updating their national laws, bringing them into conformity with treaty obligations. The Board is confident that the ongoing amendment of national laws, assisted by UNDCP, will create a sound legal basis for the control of suspicious financial transactions.
The Board welcomes the increasing cooperation between the law enforcement authorities of India and Pakistan, as well as the increase in the number of bilateral drug control agreements between States in South Asia and States in other parts of the world.
In Bangladesh, it is expected that the national coastguard, established in 1995, will, once it has been provided with adequate personnel, training and equipment, play a crucial role in reducing illicit drug supply.
Cannabis
Cannabis grows wild and is also widely cultivated in South Asia. In Sri Lanka, 300 tonnes of illicitly cultivated cannabis plants were destroyed in a jungle area in 1994. Cannabis eradication campaigns are launched every year in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. In the northern part of Bangladesh, where cannabis was not prohibited until 1984, former cannabis growers are requesting compensation for losses caused by the ban on its cultivation. The Government of Bangladesh should make every effort to eradicate such cultivation and should consider the development of agricultural projects aimed at providing alternative income to former traditional cannabis growers. National and international developing agencies should consider cooperating in such endeavours just as they do in other parts of the world, in particular with respect to traditional opium poppy or coca bush growers.
In South Asia, most of the cannabis is abused locally. In Sri Lanka, because of the large-scale production of cannabis, it is exported illegally to Australia and countries in Europe. Cannabis abuse has continued in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the number of cannabis abusers has been estimated to be 200,000. Large amounts of cannabis resin are smuggled out of Nepal and Pakistan into India. The abuse of cannabis oil (hashish oil) has been reported in Maldives. In Maldives, drug trafficking does not constitute a significant problem, but the rapid growth in tourism has been accompanied by an increase in the number of foreign nationals involved in that illicit activity.
Opium, Heroin
In India, licensed farmers licitly cultivate poppy plants and licitly produce opium under governmental control. To prevent diversion, Indian authorities have intensified the supervision of licit opium production areas and have conducted eradication campaigns in other states where illicit poppy cultivation was detected. The abuse of opium has continued in some Indian states.
The clandestine manufacture of heroin has been reported in India and large amounts of heroin have been smuggled into South Asia out of south-east and south-west Asia. Cooperation between Indian and Pakistan law enforcement authorities has improved, leading to some successes, but traffickers are seeking new routes for smuggling heroin into India out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are reports that the territories of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are increasingly being used for the transshipment of heroin from south-east and south-west Asia. Most of the heroin smuggled into Europe out of Sri Lanka enters that country from India. Sri Lankan drug traffickers seem to have developed close links with traffickers in India and Pakistan, with a view to transporting heroin of south-west Asian origin through both countries.
The spread of heroin abuse constitutes a major problem in South Asia. In India, heroin abuse was initially confined to metropolitan areas and the north-eastern states bordering Myanmar, but has since then spread to rural areas as well. Drug addiction is found in all parts of Indian society; however, the majority of heroin addicts are at the lower and lowest income levels. In the north-eastern states of India heroin is commonly injected. Elsewhere in the country, until only about three years ago, the methods used to administer heroin had been, by and large, confined to smoking and inhaling. Since then, heroin abuse by injection has spread to Bombay, Delhi, Madras and other metropolitan areas and even to rural areas. This trend has contributed to an alarming increase in the incidence of HIV/AIDS infection.
In Sri Lanka, the number of heroin abusers has increased in the past three years. Heroin has become the main drug of abuse. For the time being, inhalation is the common method used to administer heroin; parenteral administration seems to be marginal. In the past, Bangladesh was used as a transit country for heroin destined for Europe or North America; however, local heroin abuse also started a few years ago. In Bangladesh, those who abuse heroin usually do so by inhaling it, but in 1995, signs of the growing abuse of heroin by injection were observed in the country for the first time. In Nepal, heroin abuse is on the rise. In that country, "chasing the dragon" (inhalation) is the main method used to administer heroin but the number of addicts who inject heroin is also substantial.
Cough Syrup
The abuse (drinking) of an antitussive, Phensedyl syrup, has been reported in several countries in South Asia. In India, it is reportedly being used as a cheap substitute for drugs or alcohol; in Nepal, to prevent such abuse, the sale of Phensedyl and other codeine-based cough syrups has been prohibited. Increasing abuse of Phensedyl was reported in Bangladesh. Phensedyl, once available only in 250 ml medicine bottles that were smuggled into Bangladesh out of India, can now be found in large barrels. The codeine phosphate content of some Phensedyl batches found on the illicit markets in Bangladesh and Nepal is much higher than that of the Phensedyl that is licitly available in India.
According to the Government of Bangladesh, Phensedyl has become the main drug of abuse among young people in some areas of the country, including Dhaka. Illicit traffic in and abuse of Phensedyl and other similar cough syrups have created problems in some south-east Asian countries as well (for example Myanmar. The Board invites the Governments of the countries concerned to provide further information on the composition of such pharmaceutical products, on regulations in respect of their marketing and distribution and on the forms of abuse.
Synthetic Opioids
In the past, only a few cases of abuse of synthetic opioids (mainly pethidine and pentazocine) were reported in South Asia. This situation has changed drastically following the manufacture and marketing of buprenorphine in India. Because of the weakness of controls over the pharmaceutical supply system, injectable buprenorphine preparations are, despite existing prescription obligations, easily available in the region without a medical prescription. An alarming increase of buprenorphine abuse has been reported in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, contributing to the spread of HIV infection. In India, buprenorphine is commonly used in drug treatment centres in the detoxification of heroin addicts. Moreover, buprenorphine maintenance is advocated as an indigenous alternative to methadone maintenance. In 1994, India organized a national meeting on the prevention of buprenorphine abuse. A considerable amount of buprenorphine is being illicitly transported from India to countries in other regions, for example, to CIS member States.
In the opinion of the Board, the control system of buprenorphine should be revised by WHO and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. Recent developments warrant the application of stricter control measures such as those for similar potent opioids in Schedule I of the 1961 Convention.
Cocaine
There have been only a few reports on cocaine abuse in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
Psychoactives
The Board appreciates the efforts of the Government of India to prevent the diversion of psychotropic substances licitly exported from that country. Between 1993 and 1995, the Indian authorities and the Board investigated about 80 commercial orders, thereby preventing the diversion of stimulants (pemoline), phenobarbital, benzodiazepines (chlordiazepoxide, diazepam, nitrazepam) and buprenorphine into illicit channels in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.
The illicit manufacture of methaqualone has continued in India in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Goa. Significant quantities of that substance are being smuggled into African countries; there are signs that traffickers have begun to use Sri Lanka as a transit country. Indian law enforcement agencies are vigorously combating illicit methaqualone manufacture and trafficking; seizures in India increased from 15 tonnes in 1993 to more than 43 tonnes in 1994. In 1994, seven clandestine laboratories were destroyed in the country.
The abuse of sedatives and tranquillizers (barbiturates and benzodiazepines) seems to be on the rise in South Asia. The availability of a growing number of such pharmaceuticals and the inadequate supervision of the pharmaceutical supply system are factors contributing to the increase in the abuse of pharmaceuticals containing psychotropic substances. There have been reports that most pharmaceutical preparations are available without a medical prescription. The Board recommends that States in the region should ensure that their pharmaceutical legislation conforms with international standards and should strengthen control over the distribution of pharmaceutical products. It invites WHO to assist States in the region in the development of adequate pharmaceutical regulatory control systems. The Board welcomes the initiative taken by the Government of India in organizing an expert meeting on the legal and administrative arrangements for the control of medicines to prevent their abuse.
Precursors, Chemicals
In 1993, India instituted a system to regulate the trade in acetic anhydride and the Board trusts that the control system will be efficiently implemented. As a first result of the controls, large amounts of acetic anhydride have been seized in Gujarat and Rajasthan and at the border between India and Pakistan. It is suspected that significant quantities of that reagent are being exported illegally to Afghanistan, Myanmar and Pakistan and diverted within India for the illicit manufacture of heroin.
India is taking measures to control the manufacture and export of acetylanthranilic acid but, in the opinion of the Board, the monitoring of domestic distribution is most important in preventing the use of that precursor in the illicit manufacture of methaqualone.
After the Board had provided them with information about the large-scale diversion of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine for the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine, Indian authorities introduced a pre-export authorization system for the export of ephedrine. The Board appreciates the cooperation of the Government of India in preventing the availability of that precursor for the clandestine manufacture of methamphetamin.
Demand Reduction
The number of treatment and rehabilitation facilities in South Asia has been increasing but it remains limited. The Board welcomes the initiative taken by the Ministry of Welfare of India in setting up an interministerial committee on the reduction of illicit drug demand.
The entire text of the INCB Report for 1995 can be found on INCB's Home Page accessed from : http://www.undcp.org beginning 27 February 1996