New drugs-like substances seized in Dhaka

Bdnews24: The Department of Narcotics Control has seized around 850kg new psychoactive substance or NPS, which are ‘new’ to Bangladesh’, from the Shahjalal International Airport and a firm at Shantinagar in Dhaka. The seized NPS, which look 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, according to officials.
The department launched the drive on Friday to seize the NPS on being alerted by an international anti-drug organisation, Khorshed Alam, an assistant director at the DNC, told bdnews24.com.
One Md Nazim of Nawshin Enterprise came to receive a parcel containing 450kg NPS sent from Ethiopia in the afternoon and the DNC detained him at the cargo village of the airport, Khorshed said.
Later, the officials raided the firm at Shantinagar and found an additional 400kg of similar substances, according to the DNC official.
Nazim told the DNC officials in initial interrogation that he knew the substances were tea.
He also said he had a contract with a man in Ethiopia to receive the substances and forward those to different European countries and the US in exchange for $4 per kilogram.
The NPS can be consumed directly or with water, DNC chemical examiner Abu Hasan told bdnews24.com.
“These are new in Bangladesh, but spreading fast in Europe and America,” he said.
These types of NPS contain ‘Cathinone’ with similar effects of methamphetamine or yaba like stimulating sex or keeping the consumer awake, Hasan said.
“But these NPS can create serious health risk,” he added.
Side effects of NPS range from seizures to agitation, aggression, acute psychosis as well as potential development of dependence, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Since NPS are not controlled under the International Drug Control Conventions, their legal status can differ widely from country to country.
Up to 2017, over 60 countries have implemented legal responses to control NPS, with many countries having used or amended existing legislation and others having used innovative legal instruments, the UNODC says.