Dubai: An estimated 25 per cent of seized psychoactive drugs in the UAE is ‘Iranian tramadol’, a counterfeit version of an opioid pain medication, a Ministry of Interior official said on Monday at the Emirates International Conference on Combating Drug Counterfeiting, taking place at the Conrad Hotel.
“More than 110 fatalities attributed to prescription pill misuse are recorded per day in the United States,” Colonel Saeed Abdullah Al Suwaidi, director-general of the Federal General Department of Anti-Narcotics at the Ministry of Interior, said.
“Prescription pill misuse is a problem in the UAE,” he said. “We have seen the numbers grow and a significant portion of pill misuse here is attributed to Iranian tramadol.”
Col Al Suwaidi said it is not just the fundamental nature of the drug that poses a threat to users. “The way they are smuggled into the country is unsanitary and can tamper with the chemical balance of the drug, thus making it even more hazardous and unfit for consumption,” he said. “In 2014, we recorded 4.5 deaths per one million people due to narcotics.”
Col Al Suwaidi noted that in 2014, attempts to smuggle almost 600,000 tramadol pills were foiled by UAE’s Ministry of Interior. “We are sure to see this number grow by the end of this year,” he warned.
Case studies
Col Al Suwaidi shared a few case studies with the audience at the conference, stressing how their packaging and storage makes them unfit for consumption, counterfeit or not.
“In one recent case, we seized almost 750,000 Iranian tramadol pills and 48 tonnes of powdered tramadol from a cargo ship,” he said. “The way they were being stored made it extremely unsafe for consumption. They were hidden at the bottom of the ship, subject to high temperatures due to the heat emanating from the nearby engines.”
Col Al Suwaidi also highlighted the case of an Arab man who had buried various narcotics in the desert — including 30,000 tramadol pills, almost one kilo of heroin and 119gm of crystal meth.
“He dug a hole in the sand and covered it with a wooden beam,” he said. “[The drugs] were left there for a long time, under the scorching desert sun. Misuse of these narcotics will prove to be dangerous and fatal, but the conditions in which they are stored and smuggled increase their dangers tenfold.”
Col Al Suwaidi said the ministry transfers such cases to the Public Prosecution. He stressed the need for the prosecution to send samples to the Ministry of Health for examination.
“More collaboration between government entities is a basic requirement,” he said. “The Ministry of Interior transfers all cases of seized prescription pills and narcotics to the Public Prosecution. I strongly suggest that prosecution send the Ministry of Health samples of the seized substances to further assess their chemical compositions and dangers.”
