Published on: February 27, 2015

When the Indian Parliament passed the Narcotics Amendment Act in February 2014, many of our friends and well-wishers abroad expected immediate results. A year later, there has been no change. The morphine consumption in India continues to be on a plateau.

Please see the figure of the quantity of morphine sold from the Government Opium and Alkaloid Factory to manufacturers of formulations of morphine during the calendar year, 2014.

We expect that the process of implementation of the new Act by the Central Government will be complete in 2015. If, during the year, we are efficient in catalysing implementation of the rules by the state governments and if we step up efforts at promoting education and service-delivery, perhaps the figures for 2016, at least, would look better.