Pills, needles, loopholes: Cops battle prescription drug abuse in Chennai

A series of tiny injection marks on youngsters’ wrists and arms has become a tell-tale sign for police chasing the city’s growing prescription-drug menace. Three suspected overdose deaths in the city recently have turned the spotlight on the misuse of prescription drugs such as Tapentadol and Nitrazepam, with some of these tablets popularly referred to as “Dol” among users.Enforcement Bureau-CID (EB-CID) seized 9.86 lakh tablets across Tamil Nadu till Aug this year, nearly 12 times the volume seized during the same period last year. Even so, officers say the law has not kept pace with changing patterns of abuse.At the centre of the enforcement challenge is Tapentadol, an opioid painkiller. Unlike Nitrazepam, a benzodiazepine covered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Tapentadol is a prescription drug not scheduled as a narcotic drug or psychotropic substance under the Act.