The Health Ministry must immediately withdraw synthetic opioids from the market and prevent their illegal trafficking, a highly profitable business for smugglers, said Nematollah Manuchehri, deputy head of the Majlis Anti-Drug Commission.
“Unfortunately, narcotic analgesics are smuggled into the country in high proportion which helps contraband suppliers to make huge profit,” he told ICANA on Saturday.
Opiods or synthetic narcotics are not derived from opium, but have both medical usage and addictive properties as they comprise a large range of medications that act as sedatives and painkillers
Manucherhi said the Health Ministry should make an official list of opioids and narcotic analgesics. Doctors should also step up effort to prescribe domestically produced drugs and avoid foreign prescriptions and medicines that may contain some dosage of synthetic opioids.
The lawmaker said, “Unfortunately Tramadol which originally came into the market as a painkiller is now being severely abused, mainly due to lack of careful monitoring over its supply and distribution. Even though the Health Ministry’s has cut its supply, Tramadol use is still widespread and the drug takes a toll on thousands of our young people.”
He called on the Health Ministry to take immediate measures to remove the illicit drugs from the market which inflict irreversible damage on health and cause severe problems for patients.
Due to the increasing demand, synthetic opiates are mostly smuggled from Pakistan.
The MP expressed legislative support to the Health Ministry efforts to counter illicit drugs. “The ministry must closely monitor and inspect all drugs by using holograms and smart control systems to ensure that only the right patients have access to specific strong medicines.”
Parviz Afshar, deputy for the Drug Reduction Office of the Drug Control Headquarters, also expressed concern over the entry of two new synthetic opioids Buprenorphine and Oxycodone, into the local market. Such analgesics must not be made available to the general public.
