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E-Commerce
Helping Easy Availability of Pharma Drugs
And Abuse
Growing
e-commerce in India is facilitating significant increase in online
pharmacies, leading to easy availability of pharmaceutical drugs and
their abuse, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) says. In its annual
report for 2015, published on Friday, the NCB says abuse of
pharmaceutical drugs in India has assumed serious proportions in
recent times and the problem seems to be more serious in the
northeast and northwest region of the country.
"The
emergence of illegal websites (Internet Pharmacy) established in the
USA, Europe etc. offering unregulated trade in a range of
prescription medicines over the Internet has taken firm root in India
as a supplier. "These online pharmacies transmit orders from
paying customers to agents in India, who then procure the medicines
from either legitimate or illegitimate sources before dispatching
them to customers by mail and courier," the NCB says.
The
sheer volume of international post makes it impossible to screen
every parcel and hence a vast majority of illegal consignments passes
by undetected by the authorities."Internet pharmacies are
usually highly vulnerable and keep the identity of organisers tightly
veiled. In India, nevertheless, the NCB either on its own or in
coordination with the outside agencies has been making at least one
bust every year over the years," the report says. The
pharmaceutical products that are abused include buprenorphine,
codeine-based cough syrups, alprazolam, diazepam and other sedatives.
Many
of these pharmaceutical drugs are easily available over the counter
and this has become the major factor that encourages their misuse,
the NCB says. There is also the perception that these pharmaceutical
drugs are less harmful than hard drugs like heroin, cocaine etc.
"However, this is a misconception, since these can be addictive
and also have a debilitating effect on health.
Pharmaceutical
preparations having narcotic/psychotropic substances are under the
purview of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act and the NDPS Act in India,"
it says.
With
the Reference of : dnaindia
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