Indian Navy and NCB's biggest drug bust of $16 million - Tip of the iceberg - Fentanyl abuse and smuggling far more dangerous

 

Indian Navy’s Drug Bust off Guj coast - Seizes 3,300 kgs of narcotics worth $16 million (Rs 1300 crore) – Tip of the Iceberg

Ashe N Ayer (TNA)

The Indian Navy and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) – equivalent of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), made its biggest offshore seizure of narcotics off the Gujarat coast, from a suspicious vessel carrying a whopping 3,300 kg of contraband. The dhow suspected sailed from the Chabahar port in Iran. Five were held.

Drugs seized included 158 kgs of the dangerous synthetic blue colored methamphetamine crystals, 25 kgs of pain killer morphine, and 3,089 kgs of charas, a drug usually smuggled from Afghanistan's poppy fields across Pakistan to India.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in the global scenario of drug smuggling. India, USA, UK and other European countries are all victims of a usurious trade of a more deadly drug called Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a medically prescribed drug for cancer treatment to ease extreme pain that’s now being altered to become an addictive drug. Far more deadly than cocaine or meth. A slight overdoes can kill besides making one consumer very high. US reported more than 100,000 deaths from Fentanyl abuse in 2022.

The most shocking was the death of a one-year-old child in a childcare in Bronx, a district in New York metropolitan area, just by inhaling Fentanyl, a small consignment of which was hidden by a worker in the care center under a rug to be sold in the streets. The tragic death of the one-year-old child at a nursery in New York City due to inhalation from a swath of the deadly drug Fentanyl attracted global attention towards cracking down on the couriers of this deadly opioid, 100 times lethal than heroin. Almost one kilo of fentanyl was hidden in the nap room under a mat as the child slept. Nicholas Dominici, who had been at the nursery for just a week, died of a suspected drug overdose.

Three other children were admitted to hospital after being exposed to the powerful narcotic at the day-care center in the Bronx. Drug conspiracy and murder charges were filed against two people. Police believe the children, ranging in age from eight months to two years old, inhaled fentanyl at the nursery. Fentanyl has overtaken weed, heroin, marihuana and cocaine as the number one drug being used by school going and college youth as a form of escapism from the harsh realities of life in the US. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of the US government has said that thousands of youths have died due to overdose of the chemical that’s used to kill extreme pain in the human body.

Fentanyl, a pain killer more powerful than morphine or extra strong paracetamols like vicodin, is fast replacing as an addictive drug not just in the USA but also India, which according to official sources, has caused 100,000 deaths in America alone and 77,000 deaths globally. Deaths in India have been reported, but no precise figures as yet.

What’s new in fentanyl that has become popular and highly addictive? Doctors say it’s a pharmaceutical fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, approved for treating severe pain, and typically advanced cancer pain. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. It is prescribed in the form of transdermal patches or lozenges and can be diverted for misuse and abuse in not just the United States but India and other countries. Fentanyl compounds are also used by vetenarians to soothe pain in large mammals such as elephants, hippos etc. – 100 times more powerful than ordinary tranquilizers used on them.  

In recently reported cases of fentanyl-related harm, overdose, and death in the U.S. they are all linked to illegally made fentanyl. It is fast catching up with drug peddlers and sold through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often mixed with heroin and/or cocaine as a combination product—with or without the user’s knowledge—to increase its euphoric effects. Like Ecstasy it transports a human being to another world of bliss and joy, but a few grains extra, kills or induces coma. Magic mushrooms grown in asia and north america are also opiods but found to be successful in treating depression and anxiety in Canadian labs and hospitals. But magic mushroom over consumption can also be lethal. 

Deaths involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl are on the rise. According to global medical authorities particularly the US based Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the rates of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, which includes fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, increased over 56% from 2019 to 2020. The number of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids in 2020 was more than 18 times the number in 2013. More than 56,000 people died from overdoses involving synthetic opioids in 2020. The latest provisional drug overdose death counts through June 2021 suggest an acceleration of overdose deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What can be done? The US congress swung into action with the republican led house of representatives passing a legislation to temporarily ban the illicit trade and trafficking of Fentanyl based drugs until 2024 and placed it on schedule one of the FDA along with other prohibited drugs. The US Congress passed a Republican led bill in a bi-partisan manner with the support of democrats led by President Joe Biden to stop illegal trafficking in the lethal drug Fentanyl in the country. The US reported over 100,000 deaths by youths abusing the drug. 

Fentanyl is a devastating man-made drug, so strong; a few grains can induce a coma or death. On the average, U.S. adults between the 18 and 45 years of age were more likely to die from consuming fentanyl than they were to die as the result of a car crash, the coronavirus, a heart attack, suicide, or a terrorist attack in 2021, the U.S. government declared. Fentanyl overdoses registered a record -high of 100,000 overdose deaths last year.   

The Fentanyl and opioid abuse in India scenario: For several decades the Indian government has prohibited the Indian people from consuming opioids for medicinal pain management under its drug and pharmaceutical laws, despite India being a major manufacturer of medicinal opioids, particularly fentanyl and tramadol, for export and global consumption per reports appearing in foreign publications including the USA.

Two scholars Chao Wang and Nicholas Lassi from the Guanhua Law School, Zheijan University, Hangzhou, say in a research paper that China’s strict regulations on Fentanyl manufacture and use was forcing the couriers and manufacturers of this deadly drug to shift their base to India. They asked if the increased regulation against this drug in China can cause a medical health crisis in India.

Illicit Traffickers arrested on Indian soil: In 2018, two Indian nationals and a Mexican collaborator were arrested in the Indian city of Indore in possession of around 10 kg of illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF). At the time of the arrest, the three men were wearing protective gear used for handling dangerous chemicals, and it is alleged that they were conspiring to transport the IMF to Mexico.

The IMF was apparently manufactured in a factory operated by one of the Indian nationals using the popular fentanyl precursors.  The same factory also manufactured many legal substances and scientific products, revealing the difficulties of authorities in regulating these primarily legal operations moonlighting in illegality per the scholars. 

The Mexican collaborator was reputedly associated with the Sinaloa cartel, indicating that Mexican cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCO) are working closely with Indian laboratories to produce and distribute IMF. This specific operation was previously performed in China, but increased regulations have made obtaining NPP, ANPP, precursors to Fentanyl making, and other fentanyl precursors in China troublesome, prompting its relocation to India per reports.

Also, in 2018, four Indian nationals were arrested in Mumbai with around 100 kg of NPP, the aforementioned precursor synthesized into fentanyl using the Siegfried method. The NPP was purportedly being transported to Mexico, where, after undergoing two reactions, it would become the immediate fentanyl precursor ANPP, which is one simple reaction away from producing fentanyl. Once synthesized into fentanyl, it was to be smuggled into the United States.

India per global health agencies reports has around double the rate of illicit opioid use compared to the worldwide average and around quadruples that of the Asian average. The UN equivalent of CDC UNODC estimates that 0.7% of the world's population use opioids, and 0.46% of people in Asia use opioids.

Licit and illicit opioid production and distribution in India. India has a 42-billion-dollar domestic pharmaceutical industry, with much of the production centered in and around the southern city of Hyderabad neighborhoods. India’s pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow to grow to 65 billion by 2024 and 120–130 billion by 2030.

India's pharmaceutical industry ranks third in the world in output by volume, with an estimated 3,000 pharmaceutical companies and over 10,000 production facilities It also supplies around 20% of the world's demand for generic drugs. The Indian government is also pushing to reduce India's dependency on chemicals and pharmaceuticals imported from China.

Over-prescription by inexpert medical practitioners and the inadequate regulation of roadside pharmacies are fronts of misuse and abuse. With millions of doctors and pharmacies covering India's vast, not properly monitored by some state governments, combined with a chaotic medical system, the regulation and supervision of the distribution of opioids is limited, experts say.

Is the Indian narcotics legislation lacking teeth? The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985 apply to all Indian citizens inside and outside of India, and has been amended four times, in 1988, 2001, 2014, and 2021. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) operates at the behest of the Central Government to enforce the NDPS Act.

India per US reports and research papers has a "history of leniency on illicit opioids", going so far as to make serious inroads toward the legalization of opium in 2015. Patiala MP Dr. Dharamvira Gandhi authored legislation seeking to decriminalize opium through an amendment in the NDPS Act. Although this legislation was an effort to reduce the overall use of opioids, diminish the influence of mafias and other dangerous actors, and “provide relief to common drug user through cheap, regulated and medically supervised supply of traditional and natural intoxicants like “afeem” and “bhukki” (opium) “to get society rid of dangerous and killing medical and synthetic drugs.””

In 2018, both China and India banned the popular fentanyl precursors NPP and ANPP. In 2019, China enacted class-wide scheduling over all fentanyl analogs, signaling increased control over the production and distribution of synthetic opioids. India is yet to enact such legislation for fentanyl analogs, if I am not wrong. If it is enacted I would stand to be corrected.   

By way of Conclusion, in 2019 India amended its laws for stricter control over manufacture and distribution of medicinal opioids. Distribution of precursor chemicals.  Operators of online markets in India are required to detail, track, and surrender information concerning the transactions of controlled precursors. These illicit transactions are typically conducted on the “darknet,” which maintains online markets usually requiring passwords or additional software to conduct illegal transactions.