India Major Source of Illegal Online Drug Trade: Report
A new report on the use of date-rape drug has revealed that India is a major source for illegal online drug trade, reported DNA.
Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), in its World Drug Report 2009 released on Wednesday, said that India has of late become a hub of drugs sold through illegal internet pharmacies, said report.
The report highlighted strict measures to check the use of the Internet to divert controlled substances, said report.
Orders placed with internet pharmacies are usually dispatched to buyers abroad using courier or postal services, which have become a common means of smuggling drugs out of India, said report.
Authorities had detected a range of substances under international control in parcels transported by courier or post, report said.
According to report, heroin and diazepam were most frequently seized in parcels in recent years, while morphine, cannabis herb, cannabis resin, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine seized occasionally.
Report said that drug traffickers are now increasingly using social networking sites to recruit youngsters to work as ‘mules’ or peddlers in their countries.
The traffickers, report said, are believed to be targeting single unemployed women aged 20-30 who do not have a criminal record. They also target those in clerical or sales jobs to escape suspicion.
As per the report, there are 72.2 million drug addicts in India, a figure that minister for social justice and empowerment Mukul Wasnik contested.
“The INCB data does not provide much insight. We are commissioning a survey through the National Sample Survey Organisation to arrive at a right figure,” Wasnik was quoted as saying.
