OST centre volunteer caught selling drugs

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 26

Officials of the narcotic cell have nabbed a volunteer attached with the opioid substitution therapy (OST) centre for selling drugs to abusers here today. The accused has been identified as Manjit Singh.

Earlier, narcotic cell of the city police had arrested four persons on charges of selling drugs to addicts outside the OST centre and de-addiction centre at the Government Medical College here yesterday.

As per the procedure, the centre recruits volunteers from those enrolled drug addicts, who show improvement during the treatment. They are recruited to motivate other addicts to shun drugs.

The centre was established in 2010 by the Government Medical College in collaboration with the Narcotics AIDS Control Organisation to wean away addicts from injectable drugs such as heroin.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Lakhbir Singh said Manjit’s modus operandi was to lure those who could not get themselves enrolled at the centre. He managed to get an OPD slip and medicine for an addict from Swami Vivekanand De-Addiction Centre.

He used to take at least two tablets from each addict and later sell these on higher rates to other drug abusers during holidays. However, these drug addicts paid higher price for tablets as they were desperate to purchase medicine at any cost.

During a raid yesterday, the narcotic cell nabbed four youths identified as Kashmir Singh of Verka, Chintu of Karampura, Varinder Singh and Manpreet Singh of the Mustafabad area for selling drugs to addicts after luring them. The police recovered 1,100 intoxicant tablets, 125 capsules, 100 gm charas and 10 gram heroin from their possession. They were booked under Sections 20, 21, 22, 29 of the NDPS Act at Civil Lines police station. The accused were addicts themselves and used to come to the hospital to take their daily dose of drugs.

This is second such incident in which the police arrested several persons for selling drugs outside the de-addiction and OST centres.

On June 11, the police had nabbed two persons identified as Ajay Kumar and Dalbir Singh, who had come to blow the cover over sale of drugs to patients outside the OST centre. The centre provides medicines such as Buprenorphine to addicts under controlled prescription to ultimately take them off drugs. However, as drugs are being sold illegally to patients, the centre is facing hardships to achieve its target.

The police authorities stated that in this case each accused wanted to monopolise trade outside the centre, besides stopping others from sale of drugs. The police recovered as many as 130 tablets from their possession, which could be misused by drug addicts.

Earlier, around 20 patients were blacklisted by the centre, who were caught on the CCTV camera, while purchasing medicines from accused.