The Ghanaian community, especially the urban dweller, is being assailed with all types advertisements to induce them to abuse drugs of various kinds.
The media has become a great ally to the vendors who push drugs to the unsuspecting sick. Unlicensed 'pharmacists' go round prescribing and selling medications of all kinds to the illiterate, ignorant and the vulnerable passengers at the lorry stations.
Those who patronise these drugs are oblivious of the dangers that the taking of drugs not prescribed by a qualified medical officer of pharmacist entails.
Most people are not aware that every drug has side effects and these may be compounded when not taken according to the correct prescription.
People with asthma, high blood pressures, stomach discomfort, haemorrhoids, bodily pains among other ailments are those often cajoled into buying these drugs that the vendors tell them effectively cure their various conditions.
Every drug has its limited dosage and dispensing them is done according to the degree or the level of pain intensity and if taken wrongly leads to complications that might result in disabilities or untimely death.
Class 'A' drugs that should be dispensed with utmost care are sold by these unlicensed drug sellers and one wonders how they manage to procure their stocks.
What knowledge do they have regarding dispensing of medications and who gives them the mandate to administer drugs in the first place. To make a bad situation worse, some of the drugs administered are expired and others that are for only specific ailments or diseases are administered to cure or reduce pains of all kinds.
Also drugs expected to be under certain acceptable conditions and storage requirements such as storing them in refrigerators and in cool dry places are not kept as such, thus potentially endangering human lives. Since it is a criminal offence to be caught peddling drugs and also an offence when one is caught dealing in drugs the authorities are being called upon to take action against such people by punishing them according to the laws governing such acts. What is the Food and Drugs Board doing concerning this problem of drug abuse?
There are certainly rules and regulations as well as laws regarding drugs and their administration and these must be enforced. Key personnel that handle pharmaceutical products must be trained to ensure that products are properly handled; there should also be efficient inventory checks on the kind of drugs supplied to pharmacies.
There must be rules and regulations attached to those retailers of drugs so that they cannot and do not give out drugs to unlicensed drug dealers to stop the present situation.
The advertisements of certain drugs in the print and electronic media must be regulated or banned in order to decrease the rates of drug abuse. The society must note that drug abuse does not only occur when there is the intake of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other hard drugs but that it also occurs when medications such as analgesics like pracetamol, bruphens and aspirins are improperly administered or consumed.
The regulatory officers should also go on frequent inspections around the markets, lorry stations and on buses to arrest and prosecute these illegal drug peddlers.