Moga drug theft: A wake-up call for hospital security
The Tribune Editorial: The stolen buprenorphine injections can fuel the very addiction it is meant to cure and intensify the state’s already fragile battle against substance abuse.
THE theft of buprenorphine injections worth about Rs 7 lakh from Moga Civil Hospital reveals institutional slack that endangers patients, subverts deaddiction programmes and risks expanding the supply of powerful opioids into local illicit markets. Buprenorphine, a controlled opioid used both for pain management and deaddiction therapy, is not an ordinary drug. In the wrong hands, it can fuel the very addiction it is meant to cure and intensify the state’s already fragile battle against substance abuse. The missing stock was discovered when the staff opened the store; preliminary reports say locks were broken and CCTV or guards were not active, raising questions about security and possible insider complicity. The immediate harm is to patients who may be deprived of legitimate treatment; the longer-term harm is the leakage of clinically important opioids into streets where they can substitute for heroin and fuel addiction cycles — something that the state is desperately trying to combat for decades.
