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Warns Nigerians against impostors
By Henry Uche
The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has called on the National Assembly to urgently amend the existing Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Food Act to become a much more potent Act of Parliament.
The President of the Society, Pharm Ibrahim Tanko Ayuba, made this call recently at a press conference in respect of the inauguration of the PSN president and new Fellows of the Society in Lagos.
According to him, apart from the dangers which Nigerians face in the case of fake drugs, the fake drink industry is assuming a gargantuan tens-of-billions-range business championed by modern-day merchants of death.
While commending NAFDAC for their good work, especially on the recent regulatory activities leading to the enforcement of salient laws in some prominent drug markets in the South East and South West areas of the country, he urged the federal government to take more responsibility by catalysing the full implementation of the National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG), which were officially commissioned in 2015.
“This is the only way to encourage genuine players in the drug markets to relocate to the approved Coordinated Wholesale Centres (CWC) in Lagos, Anambra and Abia States respectively. It is not a particularly good testimony that while the CWC in Kano State is operational, those in these three states are yet to take off because construction of the CWC is at almost zero level.”
He stated that the National Assembly must go ahead to consider improved sanctions, including possible huge fines of over 20 million naira, life jail sentences, or even death sentences for fake drug dealers. “Let it be said again that this fake drugs dealers are de facto murderers because anyone who tampers with life-savings commodities inherently sets out to kill ab initio.”
The PSN President also called on the government to comply fully with the relevant laws in order to achieve safeguarded public health, saying: “Section 22 of the PSN Act provides that any location where drugs are sold, stocked, dispensed, etc must be registered by the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria. It is a matter of common sense that this implies that once drug items are available in a health facility, the pharmacy must be registered by a superintendent pharmacist (section 29 PCN Act).
“The government oftentimes is the biggest violator of its own laws because our experience reveals that less than 25% of the MDAs at the federal level have registered pharmacies or pharmacist in their employment, yet they actively stick and dispense drugs to consumers of health which is a major source of danger to these unsuspecting consumers.”
Ayuba advised Nigerians to always go to the hospital whenever they are feeling ill, but in cases where they want to buy over-the-counter drugs, he advised that such individuals should go to a registered pharmacy.
“Drugs are poisons, and poisons are drugs. So just for us to know, people are playing with Panadol, not knowing that Panadol itself can damage your liver, it can damage your kidney. That is how the drugs are. So we must be careful, with our health, and let’s be cautious in buying drugs from non-professionals.”
The inauguration ceremony of the PSN president and the investiture of 145 new Fellows of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria will be held on Friday, 28 February, in Abuja.