Court upholds inclusion of ‘date rape drug’ under psychotropic substances
The Delhi high court on Tuesday upheld the inclusion of infamous anaesthetic drug ketamine, notorious for its use as a date rape drug, in the list of Psychotropic Substances under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Ketamine has a wide range of effects in humans including analgesic, anaesthesia, hallucination, elevated blood pressure and bronchodilation.
Inclusion of Ketamine in the list of psychotropic substances under NDPS Act makes it punishable for a person found guilty of illegally manufacturing, possession, selling, purchasing, transportation, imports interstate, exports inter-state or its uses.
According to the law, a person can be sent to jail for a minimum of six months and up to 20 years for varying degrees of contravention involving psychotropic substances.
A bench of chief justice G Rohini and justice Jayant Nath took note of the Centre’s submission that Ketamine, which is a popular anaesthetic in veterinary medicine, is subject to abuse and the same is gradually rising in India.
The court further noted that both Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) recommended putting in place appropriate control measures to address the growing problem of ketamine abuse and diversion to illicit channel for non-medical use.
“We are also satisfied that there is enough material before the respondent (Centre) with regard to trafficking of Ketamine,” the bench said. It dismissed the plea of a man, who is in jail since 2014 after 1,195.2 kg of ‘ketamine hydrochloride’ was seized from him, challenging the inclusion of ‘ketamine’ in the list of psychotropic substances under NDPS Act as per a 2011 notification.
The man had argued that 2011 notification issued without following the procedure established under the NDPS Act.
The bench, however, refused to accept the argument saying that, “Respondent (Centre) cannot be held to have exceeded the power conferred there under in issuing the impugned notification”.
It also upheld subsequent notification that specified the ‘small’ and ‘commercial’ quantity of ketamine as ‘10 gms’ and ‘500 gms’ respectively for the purpose of penal provisions under the Act.