With drug addicts switching to ‘ghode wale capsules’, a crackdown in Punjab

Talking about the ban on the sale of pregabalin, the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Bathinda district said it can ban a drug for just three months according to the law and that the ban is required to be renewed after each quarter.

The latest order banning the sale of the drug in Mansa states, “(The) District Magistrate has imposed a complete ban on the sale of Pregabalin capsules with a dosage of more than 75 mg in Mansa district under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973. Chemists must affix their signature on the prescription slip when providing the medication and also record the date of dispensation. Civil Surgeon Mansa has observed that some people are misusing Pregabalin-containing 300 mg capsules, using it as a recreational drug (known by its street name Signature). Due to this misuse, the ban has been imposed in Mansa district.”

The district police seized 2,500 pregabalin 300 mg capsules on May 9 and 105 capsules on June 15 for violation of orders in Mansa.

A drug inspector with the state health department said the manufacture of pregabalin (75 mg, 150 mg and 300 mg) was approved by the Centre in 2005 for treatment of partial seizures, neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, anxiety disorders, and alcohol and opioid withdrawal in humans.

Ajay Kumar, the district president of the Chemist Association of Mansa, said, “The misuse of these capsules in Mansa was noticed around the time of the onset of the pandemic in 2020.”

He said a Dehradun-based company sold pregabalin capsules under the brand name Signature in Punjab till lockdown started. With Signature 300 mg becoming popular among addicts due to its easy availability and affordable price — Rs 4 per capsule — the company halted all sales in Punjab in 2022. However, Kumar said, other companies started manufacturing the same drug after that.

Dr Chhavi Bajaj, incharge of the drug de-addiction centre and outpatient opioid-assisted treatment (OOAT) in Mansa district, said the centre started observing the misuse of pregabalin nearly four years ago. “Drug addicts will take anything that is available. However, pregabalin affects the body differently compared to heroin,” said Bajaj, adding that 8,000 drug addicts are registered at Mansa’s 12 OOAT centres currently.

Dr Harshinder Kaur, a paediatrician and known anti-drug activist, said, “Pregabalin abuse makes addicts feel high and elated. However, its long-term abuse damages the nervous system and causes multiple health problems, which can also be fatal.”

In a September 2022 research paper titled ‘Pregabalin Use/Misuse: A Source of Consternation in Western Punjab’, Jitender Aneja, co-author and a psychiatrist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Bathinda, had stated, “Long-term effects (of pregabalin misuse) are yet to be seen. However we are seeing cases with seizures as well as coma when patients combine it with opium or heroin. Deaths due to such a combination is also reported. But as presently no one is doing blood analysis for Pregabalin in deaths due to drug overdoses so no stats from India.”

Alarmed over frequent news reports on the misuse of pregabalin, Kumar and other chemists said they wrote to state Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu last month, requesting a statewide ban on the sale of these capsules. SSP Mansa Nanak Singh said that he “too wrote to the health minister on the need to control the use of these capsules”.

To a query on the Mansa SSP’s letter, Sidhu said, “I am yet to receive the letter, but I will definitely look into it. We have been busy with floods. We will hold a meeting on de-addiction centres soon. We plan to deploy teams of psychiatrists and yoga experts, and train addicts so that they become financially independent once they leave these de-addiction centres.”

On its part, Kumar said, the Chemist Association of Mansa has started boycotting medical store owners accused of selling these capsules without a prescription. “Of 580 licensed medical stores in Mansa, some are said to be involved in the sale of these capsules without a prescription,” he claimed.

The minister said, “I make it a point to rotate the regulatory staff. Most drug inspectors in Mansa are new. Each time complaints regarding violations are received, independent teams are sent to probe these allegations. Barring one or two chemists (in Mansa), all others were clean.”

Bathinda Chemist Association president Ashok Balinawali said, “While there is no ban on the sale of pregabalin 300 mg in Bathinda, we have strictly told all medical store owners not to sell the dosage without a prescription. They have also been asked to keep records of all sales of these capsules. We will not support any chemist caught selling the drug without a prescription. To prevent its misuse by addicts, SHOs in Rama Mandi and Maur Mandi in the district have told chemists orally not to sell these capsules.”

However, the police say, prosecuting black marketeers for violating the drug ban is difficult since the sentence is negligible and the offence bailable.

ADGP (Bathinda Range) SPS Parmar said, “The Deputy Commissioner has the power to impose a ban on the sale of these capsules because it does not fall under the NDPS Act. Since we are not the competent authority, the government, medical experts and pharma experts should decide on the next course of action. We can’t violate the Central government’s drug Act.”