Drugs like Spasmo Proxyvon, Tramadol and Ketamine which are easily available in the market, make them the most abused drugs in North-East. A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released recently puts India as the largest consumer of heroin in South Asia and experts believe that there is a surge of pharmaceutical drug abuse in the country.

During the BSF-BDR DG level talks last March, India had complained that large quantities of phensydyl syrup are being regularly smuggled into that country from NE for use as alcohol. Both sides agreed that there was nothing wrong with phensydyl per se as it was a cough syrup but when it is mixed with 'codeine' then it gives the high of alcohol at a cheaper price and easy availability, another report said.

Such drugs are readily available at any chemist shop and are legally prescribed even by premier health institutes for pain management, especially to pregnant women and women during menstruation, the report said. In India, easy availability and least legal check make prescription drugs, especially for pain management the latest hit among the drug addicts, the report said.

To add more to the problem addiction to legal pharma drugs have also paved the way for an HIV explosion in the country. Almost 20-30 per cent of such addicts in North-East are already HIV positive and they are instrumental in spreading the menace.

Prescription drugs for pain management are used without legal prescription. There is an indispensable angle of crime associated with drug usage. It is the prevalence of criminal organisations and drug mafias that is driving the market for drugs, the report said.

Many brands of cough syrups are available even at paan shops, PCOs, CD parlours and stationary shops along the Indo-Bangladesh border in the region. Most of the cough syrups, which have narcotic properties, have ended up landing in Bangladesh through illegal channels.

Ironically, women are used as carriers of this illegal trade and last month, 35-year-old woman was held by BSF while trying to cross the Indo-Bangla international border with 25 bottles of Phensidyl, hidden in her under garments. Earlier, 20 big size trunks full with such were seized from a private plane on way to North East from where it would have on passed to Bangladesh.

According to Narcotics Control Bureau the exact quantum of illegal trade in the drug in the region is not known but the police and BSF in the past year recovered cough syrups worth over Rs 20 lakh per month on an average. But apart from the misuse of a medicine for intoxication the overuse of these drugs for a wrong cause can result in health hazards, doctors have said.