Goa to crackdown on illegal drug detoxification centres

PANAJI: The anti-drug agencies in Goa have raised concern over the illegal narcotics detoxification centres mushrooming along the state's coastline and decided to crack down upon them.

Several medical facilities, like hospitals along the beach sides, have been doubling up as drug detoxification centres, without permission of the authorities, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Superintendent (Goa) Ravi Kumar Rana told PTI on Friday.

The authorities are concerned that the number of people going to these illegitimate drug detoxification centres is much more than the state run centre at Goa Medical college near here.

"There are few hospitals in the coastal belt which are infamous for such treatment. Whenever a patient with drug overdose is referred to them, they clandestinely treat them," Rana said, adding that the hospitals mint money mostly from the foreigners who are admitted there.

The authorities have decided to crack down on these hospitals and book them under stringent laws, he said.

The number of foreigners going to such clinics is on a rise in North Goa, a senior official attached to state police's anti-narcotic cell (ANC) said.

On an average, four lakh foreign tourists arrive in the state annually.

The cases of foreigners dying due to drug overdose in these hospitals were also reported in the past.

"One of a prominent hospital in Calangute is under scanner for such activity as we have found that many foreigners have died there while being treated for drug overdose," a senior ANC official said.