Three nationals of Afghanistan have been detained with a large consignment of synthetic drugs in Dushanbe, according to the Interior Ministry’s press center.
Six packages of synthetic narcotic drug that tested positive to methamphetamine weighing 10 kilograms were confiscate from them.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against them and an investigation is under way.
Director of the Drug Control Agency (DCA), Sherkhon Salimzoda, told reporters in Dushanbe this month that the amount of confiscated synthetic drugs has increased in the country in recent years.
According to him, 15,800 narcotic pills were confiscated in the country in 2018, and 7,500 narcotic pills were confiscated in Tajikistan last year.
“In Tajikistan, the wholesale price for a methamphetamine pill in black market is $20-$25 (200-250 somoni), and its retail price in black market is more than 300 somoni,” Tajik drug control kingpin said.
Methamphetamine is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamphetamine was discovered in 1893 and exists as two enantiomers: levo-methamphetamine and dextromethamphetamine.
Both methamphetamine and dextromethamphetamine are illicitly trafficked and sold owing to their potential for recreational use. Internationally, the production, distribution, sale, and possession of methamphetamine is restricted or banned in many countries, due to its placement in schedule II of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances treaty.
