AGARTALA / NEWS DELHI, July 9 (TIWN): Massive Drug trafficking, hundreds of crores of Heroin, Brown Sugar smuggling across Northeast, Tripura’s border regions funding narco-terrorism which is a serious concern for Union Home Ministry. Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said drug trafficking poses a serious threat to global security and called upon the BRICS nations to come together to collectively fight against the menace. In past 2 days, BSF 159th Battalion confiscated brown sugar, contrabands worth Rs 1.5 crores from Silchar-Agartala train in Panisagar, North Tripura. Most of the pharmacy shops engaged in selling contraband items like phensedyl, correx, drugs, and tablets in broad day light without any prescriptions to drug addicts everyday. An investigation done by TIWN team found that all contraband items like phensedyl, correx, drug tablets are easily available over counters at most of the pharmacy shops in Agartala.

Organized narcotics business in Tripura, smuggling drugs to Bangladesh will easily cross over Rs.50 to 100 crores every year. 

 "The drug business today generates the highest illegal fund flows and leads to narco-terrorism, which poses a serious threat to global security and endangers peace, health and stability across regions," Singh said at the inauguration of the second anti-drug working group meeting of Heads of Drug Control Agencies of BRICS in the national capital.

The Home Minister said the problems of drug trafficking and abuse have taken their toll on valuable human lives and vulnerability of nations to drugs and crime remains a grave concern. 

He said that the BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- represent over 42 percent of the world population having a combined GDP of approximately 20 percent of the gross world product. 

He called upon nations to re-affirm their shared responsibility through a renewed commitment to multilateralism, international cooperation, increased technical assistance and provision of financial resources in the fight against the drug menace. 

Even though few honest officials in BSF, Police, District and Sub-Divisional Administration seizing contrabands, phensedyl occasionally, but its just a tip of iceberg. Drug mafia backed with the help of police and ruling party functionaries targeting Tripura's young generation with easily available drugs in every corner of Agartala.

An investigation was done by TIWN team on selling of contraband items in Pharmacy shops in city. During the investigation, TIWN team found many pharmacy shops doing this illegal activity in broad daylight.  In one Pharmacy shop, "Saha Pharmacy" near Math Chownuhani is not only selling contraband items like phensedyl, correx, narcotic tablets  but advising young people how to get addiction "high" by a combination of pain killer tablets and phensedyl, corex, high-codine cough syrups. Pharmacy shops are not only selling contrabands, also functioning as  Drug addiction teachers.

Pharmaceutical drugs has been the big thing for the past decade in Tripura. With large cache of prescription drugs caught by the police and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and even larger ones going unnoticed, the state has gradually shaped itself into the safest corridor in India’s Northeast for passage of contraband drugs into the adjoining territory of Bangladesh.

On the issue of narcotics, no amount of laws seems to be enough to reign in the production and distribution of banned substances. The smuggling of Phensedyl  a cough syrup, with an exceedingly high dose of codeine gained momentum in the present time.

Prescription drugs were previously used to be procured by authorized stockists. The licensing authority later dissolved licenses of all the stockists in the state due to non-maintenance of proper sales record as per the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. The drugs, however, continue to enter the state via a number of illegal channels and smuggled into adjoining Bangladesh in large quantities.