Easy availability root cause of drug abuse

KATHMANDU, May 10 : On a recent afternoon, 26-year-old Rajan Panta died of drug overdose. Though he had been taking drugs for the past 10 years, no one in the family knew that he was an addict.

Rajan did not die of hard drugs like brown sugar or intravenous injections. His parents and family found out that their sober looking son was taking the medicines that were easily available over the counter.

After the loss of their son the parents are wondering, they want an answer to their question, "Who is responsible for our son’s death?"

Rajan’s father Rishikesh Panta thinks that one of the culprits is the system of providing the drugs to anyone, without even asking for the prescription. Evana Lohar of the Richmond Fellowship Centre, working in the field of drug rehabilitation, said that in the case of cheap and easily available drugs the responsibility should be on the government.

"The lack of government commitment in addressing drug abuse issues plays a major part in the growing number of drug abusers," she said. It is found that youngsters normally abuse the easily available drugs, and slowly start heavier narcotics like brown sugar and heroine.

Bhupendra Bahadur Thapa, Director of the Department of Drug Administration (DDA) - the governmental body responsible for the control of drugs - admits the existence of the problem.

"We have not been able to monitor the sales of medicines," said Thapa. He thinks majority of the pharmacies do not adhere to the policies set by DDA regarding the sales of drugs.

In order to address such issues, the DDA is reviewing the laws. "But besides the law public awareness is also vital, and this is what we are focusing on," he said.

The Drug Act 1978 does specify three categories under which medicines can be sold. Under category A falls major antibiotic medicines which should be sold strictly on prescription. Under category B, all antibiotics and painkillers that can be obtained only by prescription. Category C is for over the counter drugs like paracetamol.

But, the pharmacies rarely follow the rules. "There are many pharmacies which easily dispense medicines like antibiotics and painkillers without prescription," added Thapa.

"Sometimes we have to give medicines without prescription," said Anup Shrestha of Shrestha Pharmacy in Maitidevi. He added that although they did give most medicines under prescription sometimes anti-drugs and painkillers were given to customers on request.

However, Shrestha also said that he knew that the medicine Nitrocyn could only be given under prescription. "We are aware of the rules and regulations set by the government and we have been trained," he said.

Drugs like Nitrocyn, D-Cold, Diazapam and cough syrups are easily available in the market, and that’s what the drug users mostly abuse. "Nirtrocyn is a popular drug abused by the youth," said Lohar.

Shrestha also said that there are many cases when pharmacies actually do sell drugs without prescription. "The government needs to take measures to prevent this," he said.

Cheap and easily available drugs are preferred by youngsters, especially girls. These drugs give them a feeling of ‘high’ but at the same time they can purchase the drugs easily, and even parents won’t mind finding such medicines in the kids’ rooms.

The use of such drugs are even more dangerous as often youngsters can carry go on taking such drugs for years without their parents having any knowledge about it. It is hard to estimate the exact number of drug users in Kathmandu. However, Krishan Thapa, Counselor at the Freedom Centre - a drug rehabilitation centre - places it at as high as 10,000.