Opium factory inaugurated

LAHORE:Secretary Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Masood Mukhtar inaugurated the opium factory here on Thursday.

DG Excise Taxation and Narcotics Control Punjab M Ali, Additional DG Excise Ahmed Saeed, ETO Admin Hafiz Zia Mustafa and other officers were also present on the occasion.

Ali while talking to the media said that the opium factory was here before the partition. The factory was closed for 15 years and now it is being reactivated after its renovation and repair. He said that the factory was used to produce 150,000 to 200,000 opium pills, which were used in preparing anti-cancer, painkillers and other medicines.

He said that the opium seized by the anti-narcotics agencies would be brought to this factory and pills would be made after its grading. He said, “These pills are also used in herbal medicine for which herbal medicine factories will be given license. Within two to three months, the opium factory will start production of pills and start supplying them to pharmaceutical companies and hospitals.