Stay away from illegal pharmacies

drugs
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Where do you purchase drugs when you are sick or when a family member needs some? Do you get them from the supermarket nearest to your house? Or are you like 22-year-old Seun  Awodugba who gets her drugs from  her  ‘physician,’ simply known as Iya Ibeji, the auxiliary nurse who dispenses drugs and administers injections right in her living room?

Worse still, is it Uncle Ben who has no training or knowledge in anything related to medicine that prescribes medicines for you? Experts warn that if you usually source your drugs from unorthodox places, you may be putting your life and those of your loved ones in danger.

According to physicians and also by law, for anybody to operate and dispense medicines in a retail drug store, he or she must be a licensed pharmacist.

However, this is often not the situation. As if they were mere kolanuts and candies, drugs are sold alongside bread, biscuits, alcohol, herbal concoction and any articles of trade in the country.

 People like Iya Ibeji who should not have anything to do with drug sale are going into the drug business in daily.

 Studies have even shown that there are more illegal drug store operators than legal ones in Nigeria.

A pharmacist, Mr. Ifeanyi Okechukwu, says though drugs from these questionable sources come cheap, their negative effects on an individual’s health may last forever.

He says, “There is this saying in pharmacy, ‘The bitterness of low quality drugs stays after the sweetness of the low price has gone.’ Buying or taking drugs from unauthorised persons or illegal chemists is just like buying food and eating it while you are blindfolded. You can be poisoned.”

Okechukwu notes that many of these drug stores are usually operated by quacks or unqualified personnel who have no knowledge on how best to guide you on the use of any medication.

He states, “It is only in a registered pharmacy that you can be guaranteed quality attention by a pharmacist who can give you drug information and medication advice.

“Drugs interact with each other either negatively or positively; it’s a pharmacist that can tell you what to do or what not to do, which food to avoid while taking certain drugs, etc. You won’t get that from a chemist where the owner may not even be educated. If they give you any advice, it is wrong.”

Okechukwu explains further that drugs sold in unauthorised premises are often sourced from manufacturers of fake and substandard drugs who sell at very cheap rates.

He adds, “Anybody who patronises an illegal outfit cannot be assured of safety or quality, because manufacturers of fake and substandard medicines often go through these channels to sell their goods. They know their business or intentions won’t be questioned. More so, you are not just harming yourself, you are also aiding and abetting illegality.”

Another pharmacist, Mr. Yinka Aminu, linked the patronage of illegal drug business to the increasing incidence of chronic illnesses such as liver and kidney problems in the country.

Aminu says, “Many operators of these illegal drug outlets prescribe drugs that you do not even need, just because they want to sell off the stock and make profit. They give you antibiotics, potent drugs that they don’t know how it works or its side effects.

“Medicines are supposed to solve problems, not to create problems for patients. Today, we are talking about the spread of chronic illnesses like kidney and liver diseases, a lot of these problems are traceable to the uncontrolled proliferation of medicine stores. When medicines are available everywhere, people tend to abuse them.”

He notes that even when the drugs are not fake, they may not be safe because illegal drug outlets do not store drugs under the appropriate conditions.

Aminu says, “They want to remain illegal because they are not ready to conform to standard pharmaceutical practices. When medicines are exposed to heat and other harsh conditions, they are as good as poison.

So, how do you know a registered pharmacy? It is simple, Aminu says. They have an Rx emblem, which is a mark of authenticity used by members of the pharmaceutical association in the country.

He adds, “There is an emblem that is used to distinguish registered pharmacies from illegal ones. Please, look out for this sign whenever you want to buy drug. That is the only way you can protect yourself for now.”

There are registered pharmacies in your neighborhood, patronise them. Remember, just as drugs heal and cure, they also kill when they are misused or abused.