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28 March 2024

Tramadol without a prescription will now land you in jail

Walid Al Fuqaie, Head of Drugs Prosecution at Dubai Public Prosecution. (FILE)

Published
By Eman Al Baik

The abuse of Tramadol, a controlled pain killer, is becoming a major issue in the UAE with the Dubai Courts seeing a huge increase in the number of incidents involving people misusing the drug.

The Dubai Public Prosecution says it has a legal basis for bringing such cases to court and since January has obtained three verdicts in a total of 21 cases involving abuse of Tramadol.

Walid Al Fuqaie, Head of Drugs Prosecution at Dubai Public Prosecution speaking at a press conference said, “Suspects who sell Tramadol illegally or consume it for other than medical reasons will be charged with trafficking mind-affecting substances or consuming it, and referred to the Dubai Misdemeanours Court as per article 41 of the Anti-Narcotics Law. We identify Tramadol peddlers as ‘petite peddlers' or ‘novice peddlers'.

The Dubai Misdemeanours Court recently convicted three suspects [in separate cases] of unlawfully selling Tramadol. An Emirati defendant was jailed six months and fined Dh5,000 for selling 200 Tramadol pills.

A Pakistani suspect was jailed for one year and deported for selling 680 pills. Another Emirati was fined Dh5,000 for selling 31 pills. Three Emirati suspects, who sold 100, 80 and 10 Tramadol pills respectively [in three separate cases], are currently being prosecuted before the Misdemeanours Court.”

Misusing Tramadol can kill, he warned.

“Earlier we used to hear about heroin and cocaine traders and dealers and now we are hearing about and arresting Tramadol dealers,” he said adding, “Dealers opt for Tramadol as it is not a listed drug and accordingly not penalised. The need to combating this phenomenon was reached in coordination with Anti-Narcotics officers of Dubai Police who have supplied us with the needed data to prove that it is a phenomena,” he added.

Legal basis

Al Fuqaie said that dealers are prosecuted for dealing in medicine without obtaining the necessary licence from the relevant authority which is penalised in Articles 1, 8 and 12, para 2, of the Federal Law No. 20 of 1995, regarding Medicine of Natural Sources.

Article 12 para 2 stipulates penalizing not less than six months in jail and not more than one year in jail and imposing not less than Dh5,000 and not more than Dh10,000 fine or any of the two penalties on anyone who imports, makes or deals a controlled medicine without obtaining the necessary licence, he said.

The Prosecution will also use para 4 of the first Article of the Health Minister’s decree No. 502 of 1990, amended in para A of Article No. 1 of the Ministerial Decree No. 90 of 1992.

 A third legal basis is Article No. 82 of the Federal Penal Code No. 3 of 1987 and its amendments of 2006. This is in addition to Article No. 121 of the Penal Code should the accused be a foreigner.

Law amendment

Tramadol is not listed in among drugs penalised by Law No. 14 of the Narcotics and Drugs Law of 1995. “We had to study different laws and decrees find the legal basis to prosecute Tramadol dealers,” Fuqaie said, adding “This is until this medicine and other medicines that have the effects of drugs if misused are included in the law.

“Should Tramadol be listed a drug offence the penalties will be stiffer than the currently awarded,” he said.