The Ministry of Health announced today, Thursday, the destruction of (981,150) tablets and more than (20) kg of narcotics and psychotropic substances in the forensic medicine office in Baghdad.

A statement by the Ministry stated, “Under the supervision of the Minister of Health, Saleh Mahdi Al-Hasnawi, Head of the Supreme National Authority for Combating Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, and in the presence of Judge Suhaib Daham Al-Maadhidi, Deputy Head of the Baghdad Al-Rusafa Federal Court of Appeal, Head of the Narcotic Drug Destruction Committee, and Director of the Department for Follow-up of the Work of the Supreme National Authority for Narcotics Affairs in the Ministry of Health Ahmed Abadi and all members of the committee, large quantities of drugs and psychotropic substances seized in accordance with the law and stored in the Forensic Medicine Department in Baghdad were destroyed.

The statement quoted Abadi as saying: “(981,150) pills of psychotropic substances, more than (20) kilograms of various narcotic substances, and methadone in a size of (850) cubic centimeters were destroyed, which were kept in the fortified room in the Forensic Medicine Department in Baghdad, which was seized according to legal records.”

For his part, Judge Suhaib Daham Al-Maadhidi explained, “This is the seventh time in the past two months, and the destruction process goes through three stages: the first is weighing, counting, and testing the narcotic substances, the second is loading and transporting, and the third is burning and destroying the drugs and testing them after the destruction process.”

Al-Maadhidi added, “The process began at eight o’clock in the morning until the afternoon in an incinerator whose temperature reaches (1300) degrees Celsius, and after the burning process is completed, the test is done again to ensure that it is completely damaged.”

Source: National Iraqi News Agency