Despite the slowly declining trend of heroin and opium misuse worldwide, injection of synthetic opioid analgesics in India has grown rapidly in the past 20 years.Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently described such dependency as a “menace” filled with “darkness, destruction, and devastation. India’s location, between the opioid production and export capitals of central and South East Asia, may be one reason for the hold that these drugs have in the country. Sociocultural changes and economic instability have left some people especially vulnerable.
Domestic production of opium and relatively open international trade policies—India is the sole licensed international exporter of raw opium—have contributed to the problem. Although the prevalence of illicit drug injection in India is relatively low, at less than 1% of the total population, current research and literature reviews estimate…
