United Nations: Prescription drug abuse is growing in India and the problem is serious in South Asia, according to a UN report which said drugs enter the region's illicit markets through various channels, being diverted from India's pharma industry and smuggled from Afghanistan.
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent UN body tasked with monitoring the production and consumption of narcotics worldwide, said in its annual report that governments in South Asia continue to respond strongly to the threat of drug trafficking and abuse in the region.
"South Asia is facing a serious and growing drug abuse problem, including the abuse of pharmaceutical preparations containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Prescription drug abuse is growing in India," the report said.
"Drugs enter South Asia's illicit drug markets through a number of different channels, including diversion from India's pharmaceutical industry, illicit cultivation and/or manufacture within the region, and smuggling from other countries, including Afghanistan (through Pakistan) and Myanmar," it said.
Pharmaceutical preparations containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances continue to be diverted from India's pharmaceutical industry and are trafficked domestically or at the international level, including through illegal internet pharmacies, the report said.
Despite efforts by India to tackle the problem, diversion from illicit channels in the country remains a major source of pharmaceutical preparations trafficked in the region.
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