By Christiana Ekpa
The House of Representatives yesterday urged the Federal Government to close all illegal outlets of pharmaceutical products including open drug markets and ensure that only prescribed drugs are administered to patients by qualified health practitioners.
Adopting a motion by Honourable Adamu Ibrahim Gamawa, the House noted that lack of a prescription policy on drug and indiscriminate drug sales by druggists, pharmacists, patent medicine dealers, and street vendors, staffed by unqualified personnel had leads to antibiotic resistance and drug abuse.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics Nigeria, there is a frightening surge in the issue of drug abuse and misuse in Nigeria with drugs use prevalence statistics at 14.4% of productive age in Nigeria;15–65 years of age, which is almost three times the global Drug use Prevalence of 5.5 percent.
The House is concerned that a large percentage of drug abuse in Nigeria are prescription drugs obtained without proper prescr
Gamawa lamented that most of the drugs sold by 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.
“We are also aware that various empirical studies showed that Drug abuse is a significant facilitator of extremism terrorism, violent crimes, and high school dropout, negatively affecting community health, security and stability,” he said .
The lawmaker stated further that according to consumer studies, if urgent actions are not taken to declare a state of emergency and allocate resources to the identification of drug abuse response and treatment, a national catastrophe of unimaginable dimension is in the offing.
Consequently, the House urge the Federal Ministry of Health to develop a prescription policy that must be enforced.
It also urged the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria to as matter of urgency close all illegal outlets of pharmaceutical products including open drug markets and ensure that only prescribed drugs areadministered to patients by qualified health practitioners and sanction erring pharmaceutical outlets.
“We further urge the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to collaborate with the Standards Organization (SON), Ministry of Information and National Orientation to continuously sensitize public awareness about drug abuse.”
