NAFDAC office in Lagos (file photo)
‘Many drug hawkers are knowingly or unknowingly merchants of death, who expose essential and life-saving medicines to the vagaries of inclement weather, which degrade the active ingredients of the medicine and turn them to poisons thus endangering human lives’
By Nweze Anaga,
Abakaliki
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised alarm over the dangerous practice of sale and consumption of fruits artificially ripened with calcium carbide and the illegal hawking of drugs in the open market in Nigeria.
It also appealed to the media practitioners to join the campaign and sensitization against the manace as it poses a very big danger to healthy living.
In her address during the South-East Zone NAFDAC Media Sensitization Workshop on “Dangers of Drug Hawking and Ripening of Fruits with Calcium Carbide” in Awka, Anambra State, the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said that drug hawkers were the major distributors and suppliers of narcotic medicines to criminal networks such as armed bandits, insurgents, kidnappers and armed robbers.
She said that most of the drugs sold by the illiterate and semi-literate drug hawkers were counterfeit, substandard or expired, and therefore do not meet the quality, safety and efficacy requirement of regulated medicines.
She added that drug hawkers constituted serious threat to national security.
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“The menace of drug hawking poses serious challenge to Healthcare Delivery System in the country and this underscored NAFDAC’s resolute determination to totally eradicate the illicit trade.
“Many drug hawkers are knowingly or unknowingly merchants of death, who expose essential and life-saving medicines to the vagaries of inclement weather, which degrade the active ingredients of the medicine and turn them to poisons thus endangering human lives.
“The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has noticed the dangerous practice of sale and consumption of fruits artificially ripened with calcium carbide as well as illegal hawking of drugs in the open market.
“Drug hawkers are also the major distributors and suppliers of narcotic medicines to criminal networks such as armed bandits, insurgents, kidnappers and armed robbers. Drug hawkers constitute serious threat to our national security.
“Most of the drugs sold by the illiterate and semi-literate drug hawkers are counterfeit, substandard or expired, and therefore do not meet the quality, safety and efficacy requirement of regulated medicines.”
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