The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has commenced the boycott of narcotics and psychotropic drugs. According to senior AIOCD officials, the retailers and wholesalers throughout the country have stopped stocking and sale of these drugs.

The existing stocks of the drugs in the market could take care of needs of the patients for the time being but a shortage situation could emerge by the middle of February, said AIOCD officials. In metros like Mumbai and Chennai, non-availability of some of these drugs is already being felt, they said.

Drugs like Alprazolam, morphine, codeine, chlordizepoxide, diazepam, flurazepam, lorazepam, nitrazepam, and oxazepam are some of the narcotics that come under the NDPS Act, which have been boycotted.

According to AIOCD, strict and cumbersome provisions of the NDPS Act were the cause for the dismay with the chemists and reason for the boycott.

The toughest provision is the Rule 67 of the NDPS Act (Formalities of Consignment Note in Form No. 7). Form No. 7 is a mandatory filling to be done by the wholesaler or the retailer, which has to be filled with information like the names of consignor/ consignee of the narcotic, particulars of the drug like trade marks, batch no., quantity of the drugs procured, date and time receipt by the consignee, etc. The form needs to be prepared in triplicate and two copies need to be sent to the consignee with one acknowledged copy to be retained for two years.

According to AIOCD officials, stockists will have to issue thousands of Form 7, for each formulation manufacturer, despatch it and collect its acknowledgement by authorised signatory who may not be present at the time of delivery.

"Unless the Act is amended and simplified further, the traders are not going to withdraw the boycott," said a senior AIOCD official.