NMRA trains police to sniff out psychoactive pharmaceutical drugs

• Sri Lanka is faced with a crisis when youth and young adults have resorted to abuse of these pharmaceutical drugs to find pleasure

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana
In a bid to mitigate the pharmaceutical drugs abuse menace, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) will back police and excise officials to identify and crackdown the trends of misusing psychoactive medicines. 

In a move to make the law enforcement officials aware, the NMRA organized a special programme last week to educate the psychoactive substances, which are prescribed as medicinal drugs for various ailments.   
A senior NMRA official told the Daily Mirror that under the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB) four pharmaceutical drugs were included in its act through Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drug Act (Amendment) No 41 of 2022.   
The mentioned drugs identified as Diazepam, Tramadol, Pregabalin and Gabapentin are regularly used to treat anxiety, seizures, epilepsy, alcohol withdrawals and neuropathic pains.   
According to the official, Sri Lanka is faced with a crisis when youth and young adults have resorted to abuse of these pharmaceutical drugs to find pleasure, which is similar to that of dangerous narcotic drugs like heroin and ice (methamphetamine).   
A special workshop was held last week to educate the Police Narcotic Bureau officials at the NMRA head office in Colombo, which was attended by 50 PNB officials.   
The police officers were trained how to identify and detect the aforesaid pharmaceutical drugs, the effects and side effects, the nature of the victims who have abused them as well as laws pertaining to them.   
“Earlier the police would simply arrest anybody who would possess such drugs without a prescription. This could be a young person who is buying such drugs for one of his elderly family members suffering from such disease,” the official said.   
The special programme was attended by CEO NMRA Dr. Savin Semage, Director PNB SSP Hemal Prashantha and was conducted by NMRA Chief Food and Drug Inspector Amith Perera.   
“When the police make a detection of suspected pharmaceutical drugs they used to seek assistance from the NMRA officials in the past and now they are empowered with the knowledge to carry out their own detections,” the officer said.