Punjab: Hooked to de-addiction medication, over 99% couldn't quit it in 5 years

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, November 23

With over 20 crore tablets of opioid-derivative drug buprenorphine plus naloxone being consumed every year, the state’s de-addiction programme seems to be heading towards a black hole.

The consumption of tablets is increasing every year but the number of patients weaning off the drug is negligible.

This has become a bigger concern as there is enough scientific evidence that the effects of buprenorphine, an opioid agonist, mimic that of opium and that it has “high addiction potential”.

As per the latest figures, in Punjab every year, 20-25 crore tablets of buprenorphine are consumed in government as well as private de-addiction and Outdoor Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics.

Early this month, Punjab Health Systems Corporation floated a tender for purchase of 10 crore tablets for the combination of buprenorphine 2mg+naloxone 0.5mg. In the state, there are 528 OOAT clinics and 36 government and 185 private de-addiction centres.

As per the government’s own data, there are 8.74 lakh patients who are getting treatment for various drug addictions in the state’s de-addiction centres. However, in five years (between 2017 and 2022), just 244 patients in private sector and around 4,000 in government de-addiction centres completed the treatment and weaned off from de-addiction medicine buprenorphine.

There is enough scientific evidence that people get hooked to the de-addiction drug and that is why it falls under the psychotropic drugs category. Three years back, data analysis on the nature of substance abuse of enrolled patients done by the government had revealed that about 67,000 addicts seeking treatment in de-addiction centres reported that they were addicted to buprenorphine. They admitted that they got a kick from the medicine and wanted to get rid of it.

Though the drug has a good safety profile, there is no doubt about its addiction potential, opine pharmacology experts. Buprenorphine must be given under the supervision of a psychiatrist, but in the past, there have been a number of reports of misuse of the drug.

Some time ago, Punjab Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh had expressed concern that the state government had been spending over Rs 100 crore annually on de-addiction but patients are not being weaned off from the de-addiction drug by the centres deliberately.

All attempts to contact Dr Balbir remained futile as he didn’t respond to phone calls.

8.74 lakh addicts were prescribed drugs

Around 8.74 lakh (2.62 lakh in government and 6.12 lakh in private centres) substance users got treatment at state’s various de-addiction centres between 2017 and 2022. But just 244 patients in private centres and around 4,000 in government (total 0.48%) de-addiction centres could completely wean off from de-addiction drug buprenorphine.