Magnitude of Substance Use in India, 2019 Report: Of the total 8.5 lakh injecting drug users in the country, 1.15 lakh are in North-eastern states

Drug and precursor Intelligence specialists from East, South and Southeast Asia, Australia, Canada and the United States met in Mandalaya in Myanmar in February to exchange intelligence on illicit trafficking of drug, synthetic drug and precursor chemicals. After three-days of intense discussions, they resolved to formulate an action plan to stop chemical trafficking in the region.

Both the meeting and the outcome are critical for India’s northeastern states, as the region is a major transnational corridor of illicit trafficking of drug and synthetic drug. Four northeastern states-Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram share 1640-km long international borders with Myanmar.

India has been recording an alarming increase in population of users of opioid, illicit trafficking of drug, synthetic drug and precursor chemical through international border that have tremendous impact on public health and well being of people.

Opioids include opium or its variants, heroin or its impure form (smack or brown sugar) and pharmaceutical opioids. Precursor chemicals are used in illegal manufacture of narcotic and psychoactive substances.

According to a report titled “Magnitude of Substance Use in India, 2019”, published by the Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment, Government of India, 2.26 crore individuals (2.1 per cent of the total population) use opioids.

Photo Courtesy : Assam Police

The report, based on a survey conducted by the Ministry through the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi in 2018 states that heroin is the most commonly used opioid in India with prevalence of 1.14 per cent followed by pharmaceutical opioid with 0.96 per cent and opium 0.52 per cent.

The survey findings reveal that apart from being a route of illicit trafficking of drugs, northeastern region of India is also vulnerable in terms of consumption of highest use of sedative drugs. The report states that 1.08 per cent population in India are sedative users. The percentage is the highest in Sikkim with 8.6 per cent of total population of the state found to be sedative users. Nagaland accounted for 5.4 per cent, Manipur with 4.3 per cent, and Mizoram 3.8 per cent of the respective state populations.

In terms of “quantum of work” of opioid on 10-75 years, Mizoram tops the list of Indian states with 6.90 per cent. This is followed by Nagaland with 6.50 per cent, Arunachal Pradesh with 5.50 per cent, Sikkim with 5.10 per cent, and Manipur with 4.0 per cent. Among the other north eastern states Meghalaya ranks 10^th in the list with 2.0 per cent, Tripura 13^th with 1.50 per cent, Assam 15^th with 0.90 per cent. The national percentage is 0.70.

Source - Magnitude of Substance Use in India, 2019

The report describes that “quantum of work combines the prevalence of Harmful use and Dependence, which are understood as categories of consumption-pattern in which the individual requires professional help. It also indicates substance use disorders.”

The region is also a major hub of “people who inject drugs.” According to estimates, there are around 8.5 lahk people who inject drugs in India. Around 34,000 persons inject drugs in Manipur and Mizoram each. These two states are included in the list of top ten states of PWID in the country. In India, around 46 per cent PWIDs use heroin, another 46 per cent use buprenorphine and rest 4 per cent use pentazocine, according to the survey.

Source - Magnitude of Substance Use in India, 2019

“Indeed, Sikkim has the highest prevalence of use of pharmaceutical opioids among all the states. Other than pharmaceutical opioids, another important pharmaceutical drug category is sedatives. Here too, it is Sikkim which has the highest prevalence of current use of sedatives as well as sedative use disorders” the report states.

According to Report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) for 2019, “South Asia is being targeted by transnational organized criminal groups in Myanmar that manufacture and traffic methamphetamine in both crystalline and tablet form into the subregion. Methamphetamine is the most prevalent substance of abuse among the amphetaminetype stimulants in South Asia. South Asia accounted for 1 per cent of the total seizures of methamphetamine at the global level.”

The INCB report released on February 27 also states the amount of opium seized in India in 2018 was 4.1 tons, which was 2.6 tons in 2017. It says that opium seizures have been continuously showing an upward trend since 2015. It was 1.7 tons in 2015 and 2.3 tons in 2016.

“India is the only country in the subregion that has consistently reported eradication of illicit opium poppy cultivation. India has increased its illicit opium poppy eradication over four consecutive years beginning in 2015 (1,400 ha in 2015, 2,635 ha in 2016, 3,076 ha in 2017 and 3,508 ha in 2018). In addition, the country seized a considerable quantity of poppy straw in 2018 (16 tons). That amount was 70 per cent greater than the amount of poppy straw seized in 2017 (9 tons)’, the INCB report states.

Ratna Bharali Talukdar