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Assam Police mulls database on drug trafficking

By SANJOY RAY

GUWAHATI, May 14 - Rated as one of the most abused drugs in the United States, Methamphetamine, popularly known as Meth, according to law enforcers, is now fast penetrating markets in the State, even as Assam Police mulls creation of a database of drug traffickers.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Assam, has warned the Assam Police about the emerging threat, urging the latter to remain alert against proliferation of synthetic drugs like Meth and devise mechanism to thwart the attempts of the trans-national drug trafficking racket.

The database, which will be a first of its kind in Assam, will be created with inputs from the NCB and other Central agencies mandated to act against drug trafficking, Assam Police sources said.

The NCB believes that although, historically, ganja is the most abused contraband in Assam followed by opium and heroin, Meth and a few other forms of synthetic and semisynthetic drugs have emerged as the biggest threat as they can have dreadful influence on the generation next. �Any kind of loose tablets which is coloured, 95 per cent chances are that it is Meth � a drug which is believed to be at least 10 times more addictive than heroin,� a senior NCB official said.

NCB experts claimed that although the drugs come very cheap, their effects are stated to be the longest and can keep the user �high� for even 48 hours on the same dose.

�Unlike some other forms of prescribed drug abuse that come in the form of painkillers and other pharmaceutical drugs, its (Meth) reaction on human body differs from person to person. For somebody it may work for eight hours, for others the effect may last even for more than 48 hours,� the official said.

�If we do not contain it now, it will be virtually difficult to control the demand and supply chain after a few years,

the official opined.

He also informed that Meth is easily available as it is manufactured in Myanmar and is pumped into the Indian market mostly through Manipur and Mizoram.

�Recently, some consignments were seized in Manipur, Mizoram and also in Guwahati. The size of the consignments was also quite large,� he said, adding that Meth is mostly abused in rave parties.

�The US is suffering from this drug like anything. They have stationed their officers all over the world to ensure that at least Meth is not trafficked from other parts of the world to the US,� NCB sources said.

�If you search the web, you will get at least 600 to 700 recipes to prepare a Meth. The ingredients are easily available too,� sources said, adding that the illicit internet pharmacies, too, are adding to the menace.

�The NCB has busted a number of Meth laboratories in some parts of India, which are invariably run by foreign nationals,� sources further pointed out.

A senior Assam Police official told this reporter that abuse of both prescribed and non-prescribed painkillers is also on the rise in the State, especially in Lower Assam.

�Along with Meth, the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs, like Nitrosun 10 and Diazapam, is also high among youngsters,� he added.

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