Chemist body opposes regn of psychotropic medicine sellers

The Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN) has asked all wholesale and retail traders selling psychotropic substances in bulk form and formulations to register themselves with the Narcotics Commissioner of India and submit quarterly details of procurement, stock and sale of such products during the specific period.

Commonly prescribed morphine and its salts including codeine preparations are all covered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

A public notice issued by the Narcotics Commissioner said manufacturers and suppliers of such products will not be allowed to deal with non-registered traders after September 30. All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), the 10 lakh-member strong umbrella body of India’s retail and wholesale medicine dealers have opposed the move citing implementation issues.

The public notice had pointed out the instances of diversion of psychotropic substances from the legal channels to illegal channels at the traders’ level and hence wanted the trade to come under the mandatory registration regime. Traders of psychotropic substances doing international business are already required to register with CBN’s online portal. The manufacturers of these products are also bound by the existing registration and quarterly return filing regime. What CBN has done now is to expand the scope of regulatory monitoring across all domestic traders of psychotropic substances in India.

In a letter to the Narcotics Commissioner of India, AIOCD officer bearers said that while illicit trade of psychotropic substances should receive stern punishment prescribed under the NDPS Act, exaggerating stray instances to bring medicine distributors, stockists and chemists under the ambit of the law is uncalled for. “Traders are the backbone of the supply chain and point of sale to patients and if this public notice is imposed, many distributors, stockists and chemist shops would stop storing psychotropic substances, leading to a shortage of these critical medicines,” J S Shinde, president, AIOCD stated.

According to AIOCD, Rule 65 of the NDPS Act, which specifies that a person who has been issued licence to manufacture one or more psychotropic substances should register with the Narcotics Commissioner for each of the substances in the form and manner as may be specified, is only applicable to manufacturers and not the traders. “Registration and filing of complicated quarterly returns by close to 10 lakh traders across the country increases the administrative burden and will cause undue hardships to traders and to CBN. Traders will need external consultants to comply with it”, Rajiv Singhal, general secretary, AIOCD said.