RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@gmail.com

The Min­istry of Health says au­thor­i­ties, among them the Drug In­spec­torate, are con­tin­u­ing to be vig­i­lant as they mon­i­tors all dan­ger­ous drugs, in­clud­ing emerg­ing drugs which pose se­ri­ous threats to health and safe­ty.

Last week, the Health Min­istry con­firmed there had been no seizures of the pur­port­ed drug Straw­ber­ry Quick in re­cent times, af­ter re­ports on its pos­si­ble ex­is­tence in Guyana be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia, the min­istry said an ear­ly warn­ing sys­tem is in ef­fect through the Drug In­spec­torate to mon­i­tor all dan­ger­ous drugs.

“The Ear­ly Warn­ing Sys­tem for New Psy­choac­tive Sub­stances and Oth­er Emerg­ing Drugs in Trinidad and To­ba­go (EWS-TT) has in­di­cat­ed that there has been no re­port of any seizures of any such drug in Trinidad and To­ba­go in re­cent times.” 

In 2007, the Straw­ber­ry Quick drug was deemed a hoax. How­ev­er, last Fri­day Guyana’s Cus­toms An­ti-Nar­cotics Unit (CANU) is­sued a warn­ing about it, prompt­ing con­cerns among par­ents in Trinidad.

The min­istry con­firmed aware­ness of the warn­ing is­sued by CANU re­gard­ing the drug, which is re­port­ed­ly tar­get­ed at chil­dren. 

“The MOH, through its Na­tion­al Al­co­hol and Drug Abuse Pre­ven­tion Pro­gramme (NADAAP), Chem­istry Food and Drug Di­vi­sion and the Drug In­spec­torate, through EWS-TT, con­tin­ues to mon­i­tor all re­ports of dan­ger­ous drugs,” the min­istry stat­ed.

It out­lined the role of the EWS-TT, which was es­tab­lished in Sep­tem­ber 2017, ex­plain­ing that it is “an in­ter-in­sti­tu­tion­al, mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary net­work com­prised of key stake­hold­ers that gen­er­ate and ex­change in­for­ma­tion.” 

Ac­cord­ing to the min­istry, the sys­tem is de­signed for “the ear­ly de­tec­tion of events re­sult­ing from the ap­pear­ance of new psy­choac­tive sub­stances (NPS) or oth­er emerg­ing drug phe­nom­e­na that may pose a threat to pub­lic health.” The sys­tem al­so does an as­sess­ment of risks re­lat­ed to the pres­ence of those sub­stances and the is­suance of ear­ly warn­ings to pro­duce ef­fec­tive re­spons­es.

The min­istry said the chair of the EWS-TT has been col­lab­o­rat­ing with the In­te­grat­ed Threat As­sess­ment Cen­tre (ITAC) and the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil Sec­re­tari­at (NSCS), as well as the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

Ad­dress­ing po­ten­tial health risks, the min­istry said, “Metham­phet­a­mine (meth) is a syn­thet­ic stim­u­lant that is high­ly ad­dic­tive. Chron­ic meth use can lead to many long-term ef­fects even when a per­son stops us­ing the drug. These ef­fects in­clude: se­vere with­draw­al, heart at­tack or stroke, skin itch­ing lead­ing to blis­ters and/or sores.”

Re­gard­ing pub­lic aware­ness ef­forts, the min­istry stat­ed, “Pre­ven­tion ini­tia­tives led by NADAPP have been con­sis­tent­ly im­ple­ment­ed for key stake­hold­ers and will con­tin­ue to in­form the na­tion­al pub­lic on the risks and con­se­quences of the use of new psy­choac­tive sub­stances and all oth­er drugs.” 

It added that pro­gram­ming for schools has al­ready been put in place to in­clude col­lab­o­ra­tion with guid­ance of­fi­cers, School Safe­ty Of­fi­cers, teach­ers, deans, and prin­ci­pals as part of NADAPP’s reg­u­lar work plan.

The min­istry as­sured that hos­pi­tals and health­care providers are pre­pared to iden­ti­fy and treat cas­es of metham­phet­a­mine poi­son­ing. 

It al­so con­firmed there is on­go­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion with law en­force­ment, stat­ing, “Var­i­ous di­vi­sions of the MOH such as NADAPP, the Drug In­spec­torate and the Chem­istry Food and Drugs Di­vi­sion serve on the EWS-TT along­side oth­er key agen­cies and will con­tin­ue to work to­wards drug pre­ven­tion and ed­u­ca­tion strate­gies.”

It said if any­one sus­pects the pres­ence of this drug in their com­mu­ni­ty, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice should be con­tact­ed.  

The min­istry al­so said through its var­i­ous di­vi­sions, in­clud­ing NADAAP in col­lab­o­ra­tion with its ex­ter­nal stake­hold­ers, it will con­tin­ue its work on drug use, pre­ven­tion and ed­u­ca­tion.