Concern over rising opioid analgesic abuse in Manipur

The Manipur Police arrested two persons, including a 40-year-old woman, from Thoubal district’s Lilong on September 14 in connection with the seizure of addiction-causing pharmaceutical drugs. The police found in their possession 50 boxes containing 15,000 capsules of “Tramadol Hydrochloride Tramanil”, weighing about 7 kg.

The consignment, allegedly for illegal distribution to specific clients, was seized almost a month after a youth died at a drug rehabilitation centre in the State’s capital, Imphal. He had reportedly been injecting crushed tablets of Tapentadol, an opioid analgesic thrice as potent as Tramadol.

These incidents and the admission of another Tapentadol user at the drug rehabilitation centre with a serious infection due to injections confirmed what anti-narcotic officials and counsellors suspected — drug addicts were shifting to opioid analgesics available as prescription pain management medication from heroin and other narcotic substances made costlier by the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur.