India in US list on Drug Transit | 10 Aug 2019

Recently, US designated India among about 20 major drug transit or illicit drug-producing countries.

However, it also noted that a country’s presence on the list is not necessarily a reflection of its government’s counter-narcotic efforts.
Apart from India, the countries identified in the list are Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

There are a combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to transit or be produced, even if the government has engaged in robust and diligent narcotics control measures.
- For instance, India is in the middle of two major illicit opium production region in the world the Golden Crescent (Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan) in the west and the Golden Triangle (South-East Asia) in the east.