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Case of DRUG ABUSE Visakhapatnam

24-5-2008

I feel very perturbed about this incident. Visakhapatnam is known as a city where peace reigns and we

are now witnessing incidents which indicate the presence of frustration and unhappiness among the

people, especially among the youth.

The citys police arrested the owner of Vaheeda Medical Shop in M.V.P. colony in Visakhapatnam on 24-

5-2008, for possessing and selling addictive drugs to youth in an unauthorized manner.

As reported in our Eenadu;

On 24-5-2008, Saturday, a Swift car came and stopped opposite Vaheeda Medicals in M.V.P.colony,

Visakhapatnam. A lady came from the shop, talked to the people in the car, went back to the shop and

came out in two minutes again with syringes and injection bottles. As she was handing over the

injections, a task force police jeep came and stopped near the car. The lady was arrested. The police also

caught a 17 year old girl and another boy who were at that time taking the unauthorized injections. Next

day morning drug inspector Mr. R. Udaya Bhaskar raided the shop, found many unauthorized dealings

and seized the shop. The police got a tip off regarding the shop and were observing it since one month

and on Saturday caught the culprits in a red handed manner.

There are many issues in this type of incidents. But today I want to focus on only one issue.

Some medicines which are very necessary to give relief from pain or suffering are also having addictive

potential. These medicines which were caught in this incident are Spasmoproxyvon capsules, fortwin

injections, corex bottles, cough syrup containing codein phosphate , and nitrosun.

We cannot stop the manufacture of these medicines as they are essential in some situations. For

example people who undergo surgery suffer from intense pain and fortwin injection gives tremendous

relief. Those who suffer from severe pain in the stomach are prescribed spasmoproxyvon. But the

medical shop people should not give them without prescription.

But these people are doing that grevious error and bringing shame to the pharmacy profession and

downfall in all values in the society. It is a very bad and sad state of affairs.

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5 Years After: Portugal's Drug

Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive

ResultsStreet drugrelated deaths from overdoses drop and the rate of HIV cases crashes

By Brian Vastag | April 7, 2009 | 107 

y 

DRUG PLAN: Portugal decriminalized the use and

 possession of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other illicit street drugs in an attempt to cut downon related deaths and infections Image: ISTOCKPHOTO/TOLGAKOLACK 

In the face of a growing number of deaths and cases of HIV linked to drug abuse, the Portuguese

government in 2001 tried a new tack to get a handle on the problem²it decriminalized the useand possession of heroin, cocaine, marijuana, LSD and other illicit street drugs. The theory:

focusing on treatment and prevention instead of jailing users would decrease the number of deaths and infections.

Five years later, the number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to

290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin,cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006,

according to a report released recently by the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C, libertarian think tank.

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 "Now instead of being put into prison, addicts are going to treatment centers and they're learning

how to control their drug usage or getting off drugs entirely," report author Glenn Greenwald, aformer New York State constitutional litigator, said during a press briefing at Cato last week.

Under the Portuguese plan, penalties for people caught dealing and trafficking drugs areunchanged; dealers are still jailed and subjected to fines depending on the crime. But peoplecaught using or possessing small amounts²defined as the amount needed for 10 days of 

 personal use²are brought before what's known as a "Dissuasion Commission," anadministrative body created by the 2001 law.

Each three-person commission includes at least one lawyer or judge and one health care or social

services worker. The panel has the option of recommending treatment, a small fine, or nosanction.

Peter Reuter, a criminologist at the University of Maryland, College Park, says he's skeptical

decriminalization was the sole reason drug use slid in Portugal, noting that another factor,especially among teens, was a global decline in marijuana use. By the same token, he notes that

critics were wrong in their warnings that decriminalizing drugs would make Lisbon a drugmecca.

"Drug decriminalization did reach its primary goal in Portugal," of reducing the health

consequences of drug use, he says, "and did not lead to Lisbon becoming a drug touristdestination."

Walter Kemp, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, says

decriminalization in Portugal "appears to be working." He adds that his office is putting moreemphasis on improving health outcomes, such as reducing needle-borne infections, but that it

does not explicitly support decriminalization, "because it smacks of legalization."

Drug legalization removes all criminal penalties for producing, selling and using drugs; nocountry has tried it. In contrast, decriminalization, as practiced in Portugal, eliminates jail time

for drug users but maintains criminal penalties for dealers. Spain and Italy have alsodecriminalized personal use of drugs and Mexico's president has proposed doing the same. .

A spokesperson for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy declined to

comment, citing the pending Senate confirmation of the office's new director, former SeattlePolice Chief Gil Kerlikowske. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S.

Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs alsodeclined to comment on the report.

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 Narcotics trafficking cases up

Adjust font size:

The number of drug trafficking cases in the country in the first nine months of the year jumped 40

 percent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said yesterday.

Border police detected 265 drug-smuggling cases from January to September, seizing about 436kg of narcotics.

More drug trafficking cases were reported from port cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen,

Shanghai, as well as big cities including Beijing, Hangzhou, Kunming and Urumqi.

"More domestic and foreign drug traffickers are smuggling drugs to or via China posing a great

threat to the country's social stability," said deputy director of GAC's anti-smuggling bureau XiaShouda.

Drugs are more likely to be smuggled in from the Golden Crescent, comprising the mountainousregions of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, than the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia, he said.

Since the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is often used as a transit point for drugs smuggledin from the Golden Crescent, customs officials in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, launched a special

crackdown in summer. They uncovered eight major drug smuggling cases and seized about 30 kgof heroin.

Xia said more cases involving "human mules", people who swallow heroin and other drugs incondoms or small plastic sachets to smuggle them, had been detected.

Customs officials in Guangzhou said seven of the eight drug-smuggling cases detected at thecity's Baiyun Airport from September 21 to 25 involved "human mules".

(China Daily October 26, 2007)