Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
A green tea colour neo-brand drug known as new psychoactive substance (NPS) or Khat has entered the country from Africa amid the law enforcers’ zero tolerance policy against narcotics.
The drug consumers opted the drug as the law enforcers continue the massive drive against the drugs, mainly Yaba and Phensedyle, to save the next generation, experts and law enforcers said.
Sensing the demand, several smuggling gang syndicates and drug traders began the import such type of drug in a large scale which was exposed to the people after seizure of a big haul on August 31, they said.
These types of NPS contain ‘Cathinone’ with similar effects of methamphetamine or sex stimulating Yaba keeping the consumer awake, said a Home Ministry official seeking anonymous.
“But these NPS can create serious health risk,” he said.
However the government has taken zero tolerance policy against the all common drugs, including Yaba, phensedyle and cannabis, according to him.
In the latest, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) seized 1,600 kilogrammes of Khat, a new psychoactive substance (NPS) drug worth around Tk 2.38 crore at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Monday.
The consignment of the NPS that came from Ethiopia through Foreign Post Office was recovered from the cargo unit, said Sharmin Jahan, Assistant Commissioner (Media) of the CID. The CID’ Deputy Inspector General Md Shah Alam told the media on Tuesday, the 96 cartons of NPS consignment branded as “green tea” were supposed to be forwarded to 20 addresses across the country.
On September 8, 160kg consignments of similar substance were seized by the Customs officials.
Earlier, the Department of Narcotics Control seized around 850kg NPS, which are ‘new’ to Bangladesh’, from the Shahjalal International Airport and a firm at Shantinagar in Dhaka on August 31, said Khorshed Alam, an Assistant Director of the DNC. The seized NPS, which looks much like green tea leafs, have been common in Africa for a long time and are recently being used in many countries as alternatives to drugs like heroin or methamphetamine, he said.
“These are new in Bangladesh, but spreading fast as it spread in Europe and America,” he said.
One Md Nazim of Nawshin Enterprise came to receive a parcel containing 450kg NPS sent from Ethiopia and the DNC detained him at the cargo village of the airport, Khorshed said.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told the media recently that the government will not let anyone off the hook in the anti-drug clampdown.
According to United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), over 60 countries implemented legal responses to control NPS since 2017, with many countries having used or amended existing legislation and others having used innovative legal instruments, it said.
