Illegal use of opioid ‘Fentanyl’ with cocaine or heroin an alarming trend in India

New Delhi: Recent reports suggest that the use of Fentanyl, a deadly opioid, has increase exponentially in India where it can be bought on a doctor’s prescription at a meagre cost of Rs 600. Administered mainly by injection to cancer patients, it is used as a medicine to treat extreme physical pain. However, a recent trend shows that Fentanyl which has killed over 70,000 people across the globe is being used by drug addicts in not just India but other parts of Asia and Africa.

Fentanyl, also known as a ‘horror drug’ is mixed with substances such as cocaine or heroin and is consumed either by injection or patches. Since it has been medically known to induce a relaxing effect that lasts for an hour or two, drug addicts prefer to use Fentanyl in small quantities through injections. According to a report by Deccan Chronicle, street names of the deadly drug are China White, Crush, Dance Fever, China Girl and Apache. 

To put things in perspective, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized a considerable quantity of the drug in Delhi back in 2017. However, due to the lack of records, India currently has no data about the number of deaths caused in the country due to the intake of Fentanyl. 

In fact, Home Minister Rajnath Singh in a speech said that India has addiction problems referring to the use of Fentanyl and tramadol. Top officials with the NCB chapters of Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi along with other metro cities have stressed on the immediate need to curb the illegal use of Fentanyl.

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