ATS or Yaba- who’s to blame
ATS or Yaba is a stimulant drug that is contraband in Bangladesh like
many other countries. Surprisingly Bangladesh
is reported (UNODC ) to be the principal supplier of pseudo-ephedrine to many
Latin and Caribbean countries. National
intelligence also have the information about exporting of pseudo-ephedrine, but
no firm or person is so far charged, for lack of correct registration of the
exporting firm or man. Drug controlling body in Bangladesh had already detected six
consignment of ephedrine that was bound for five other countries in between
2009-2010.
The main ingredient of Yaba is
Amphetamine or Metha-Amphetamine. Metha- Amphetamine makes of Ephedrine and
pseudo-ephedrine. The drug made of these ingredients also known as Amphetamine
Type Stimulants (AST); the same is called Yaba in Bangladesh,
Burma, and Thailand. This
category of drug stood second in the usage list. India
is the main source of Yaba ingredients, Burma
is the manufacturer, and Bangladesh
seems the trading route and one of the potential markets and exporter.
Pseudo-ephedrine is also the ingredient of other drugs that are used by other
pharmaceutical industries; -is an imported item principally. Part of this
import smuggled out to any third countries. For example, three consignments
were caught in Dominican Republic,
Guatemala and Honduras. Last
year 19 August at Dhaka
Airport 82kg
pseudo-ephedrine was blocked from exporting by the Drug Controlling agency.
As per record of Drug controlling
agency- in 2009, a consignment of 12kg pseudo-ephedrine were caught in
Honduras, in the same year 203kg confiscated in Mexico city, 30 thousand pcs
were blocked in Belize, one consignment also found in Dominican Republic, and
in 2010 another consignment of 41600pcs of pseudo-ephedrine was blocked in
Honduras once again. In 2010 Guatemala Customs authority bagged in 100,000pcs.
In Bangladesh
52 pharmaceutical firms have the license to import pseudo-ephedrine, so it is
not that easy to pin point that is or are playing the game!
As per importing data- the
statistics of pseudo-ephedrine import:
In - 2008 = 26,400 kgs.
- 2009 = 11,587
kgs.
- 2010 = 14,055
kgs.
What do they make out of it- Bronco dilator and Nasal
Decongestant used by strong cold affected patients.
But is it that difficult to trace- for intelligence office?
Experts do smile- my daughter giggles!