edicines used for managing menstrual pain and other such prescription drugs are becoming favourites among addicts in India who are exploiting the ready availability of pharma drugs to get their high, say experts.
 

A report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released recently pegs India as the largest consumer of heroin in South Asia and experts believe that there is a surge of pharmaceutical drug abuse in the country.
 

"Easily available pharmaceutical drugs like Spasmo Proxyvon, Tramadol and Ketamine make them the most abused drugs in North-East India. Addicts take as much as 24 injections a day," says Dr Chwand Lung Muana, Project Officer, Shalom, an NGO for HIV and AIDS in Mizoram.
 

Such drugs are readily available at any chemist shop and are legally prescribed even by premier health institutes such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for pain management, especially to pregnant women and women during mensturation, adds Dr Muana who participated in the launch of UNODC campaign "Think Health not Drugs."
 

"Globally, the number of people using amphetamine-type stimulants - estimated at around 30-40 million - is soon likely to exceed the number of opiate and cocaine users combined. There is also evidence of increasing abuse of prescription drugs," states UNODC's World Drug Report 2010.
 

In India, easy availability and least legal check makes prescription drugs, especially for pain management the latest hit among the drug addicts, says Prasada Rao, Special Advisor to Executive Director, UNAIDS.
 

The addiction to legal pharma drugs have also paved the way for an HIV explosion in the country, says Asha, a former project member of UNODC in Punjab.
 

"Almost 20-30 per cent of such addicts in North-East are already HIV positive. They are instrumental in spreading the menace," says Dr Muana.
 

The growing dependency over pharma drugs has also trapped people in one of the most affluent states - Punjab -of the country, a state which experts say is home to an abundant supply of drugs.
 

Ajit Singh, co-founder Vidya Mandir, an initiative for education and sensitisation towards drugs abuse, cites the case of Maqboolpura near Amritsar also known as the land of widows where the majority of male members have succumbed to excessive drug usage.