Govt to list Yaba as Category ‘A’ drug to ensure death penalty as highest punishment

The government is set to include Yaba into the list of Category ‘A’ drugs, making the highest punishment for the Yaba-related crimes in line with the Narcotics Control Act.

Chief Crimes Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 26 July 2017, 09:18 PM
Updated : 26 July 2017, 09:18 PM

The health ministry’s Security Services Division Secretary Farid Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury disclosed the information on Wednesday at an event held to observe the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Dhaka’s Osmani Memorial Auditorium.

 Yaba is a banned drug in Bangladesh but smuggled into the country by drug traffickers as it is popular among a section of youngsters.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal was the chief guest at the programme, organised on July 26, a month later due to the Eid-ul-Fitr.

Chowdhury said the government had taken initiatives to modernise the anti-narcotics law and rules to more effectively prevent drugs abuse and smuggling.

“Formulation of a new law is at the final stage. It will define drugs in more modernised way.”

Under the current law, methamphetamine-based Yaba is in Category ‘B’ along with many drugs including marijuana. The highest punishment for crimes related to these drugs is 15 years in jail.

The Category ‘A’ narcotics includes heroin, cocaine, pethidine, morphine and opium.  The maximum punishment for crimes related to them is the death sentence, and the minimum is two years imprisonment.

Department of Narcotics Control’s Director General Md Jamal Uddin Ahmed told bdnews24.com that they also included Shisha in the list of drugs.

He said steps had been taken to set up a stronger anti-narcotics unit in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf as most of the Yaba enters Bangladesh through the Myanmar border.

A decision has also been made to establish hospitals to treat drug addicts in every district, Ahmed added.

At Wednesday’s programme, the home minister said the narcotics control department’s organisational structure was being revamped, and the list of drug dealers has been corrected.

The department’s manpower was also being increased, Kamal said, adding that every district now has an office with a first class officer and all logistics support.

Omor Faruk Chowdhury, a member of the parliamentary standing committee on home ministry, said, "Bangladesh has become a very risky country due to the continuous expansion of the narcotics problem."

He also mentioned that the number of women drug addicts was increasing greatly and now 20 percent of the total addicts in the country were women.