Addicts stealing drugs from de-addiction centres: Police
4 Dec 2014 11:26 PM GMT
The police have learnt that such drugs are being siphoned-off from de-addiction centres and sold in the city. “Peddlers in the city sell medicines like Addnok N and Pak Amwil issued exclusively to de-addiction centres. These medicines have an entirely different effect when taken as an accompaniment with alcohol or mixed with other drugs like heroin,” said a police official.
The police shall now look into the issue, said the official. He further added the police was not accusing the de-addiction or rehabilitation centres of conniving with the peddlers but it would definitely ask them to enhance their drug monitoring system. “Also when they prescribe these drugs, we shall request them to consider such cases and the addicts’ backgrounds,” the official added.
According to a source, this ‘siphoning-off’ of medicines, later to be used as intoxicating drugs themselves, takes place mostly from the government-run de-addiction centres — dealing with thousands of homeless drug addicts, which is a challenge in itself — and NGOs working in drug-induced HIV/AIDS.
“The NGOs and de-addiction centre follow a step-by-step rehabilitation pattern and deal with a large number of heroin addicts who inject themselves, and became victims to the virus. In step one, they try to make the addicts leave syringes and substitute that with other drugs. Later they execute other methodologies in further steps. The addicts who enrol themselves with ill-intentions, leave the programme after step one and sell-off the medicines,” the source added.
In a case cracked by Delhi Police on Tuesday, a man identified as Zaheer (27) was arrested from the Nigambodh Ghat area and around 200 grams heroin (worth around Rs 20 lakh in the international market) was recovered. He also possessed 39 injection and 32 tablets (mostly Addnok N and Pak Amwil). “He later told police he had purchased those tablets from addicts who had recently been to drug de-addiction centres and sneaked them out,” said Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police (Crime). He further said, these injections and medicines are only prescribed for de-addiction but the same can be used as intoxicants by mixing with alcohol and other drugs.
The police shall now look into the issue, said the official. He further added the police was not accusing the de-addiction or rehabilitation centres of conniving with the peddlers but it would definitely ask them to enhance their drug monitoring system. “Also when they prescribe these drugs, we shall request them to consider such cases and the addicts’ backgrounds,” the official added.
According to a source, this ‘siphoning-off’ of medicines, later to be used as intoxicating drugs themselves, takes place mostly from the government-run de-addiction centres — dealing with thousands of homeless drug addicts, which is a challenge in itself — and NGOs working in drug-induced HIV/AIDS.
“The NGOs and de-addiction centre follow a step-by-step rehabilitation pattern and deal with a large number of heroin addicts who inject themselves, and became victims to the virus. In step one, they try to make the addicts leave syringes and substitute that with other drugs. Later they execute other methodologies in further steps. The addicts who enrol themselves with ill-intentions, leave the programme after step one and sell-off the medicines,” the source added.
In a case cracked by Delhi Police on Tuesday, a man identified as Zaheer (27) was arrested from the Nigambodh Ghat area and around 200 grams heroin (worth around Rs 20 lakh in the international market) was recovered. He also possessed 39 injection and 32 tablets (mostly Addnok N and Pak Amwil). “He later told police he had purchased those tablets from addicts who had recently been to drug de-addiction centres and sneaked them out,” said Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police (Crime). He further said, these injections and medicines are only prescribed for de-addiction but the same can be used as intoxicants by mixing with alcohol and other drugs.
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