The Director of Narcotics, Rajesh Srivastava, and other officials of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India consulted with leaders in palliative care on July 28, 2014 on the proposed rules for narcotic drugs. Apart from drug controllers from most states, those present included Dr Nagesh Simha, President of IAPC, Dr M R Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India, Dr Sushma Bhatnagar, Editor of the Indian Journal of Palliative Care, Harmala Gupta, President of CanSupport and Tripti Tandon of Lawyers’ Collective.

This was a significant step forward after the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act came into force on May 1, 2014. Earlier, the government had invited IAPC to submit its suggestions for the NDPS (Essential Narcotic Drugs) Rules 2014.

The draft rules under finalisation may be accessed here.