Medical stores sell habit-forming drugs in Mancherial

This was revealed during raids on the stores carried out by officials of the Drug Control Administration (DCA)

Mancherial: Certain drug stores in Mancherial district are allegedly indulging in unethical practices, playing with the lives of the public, according to officials.

Officials said that Mancherial district has around authorized 600 outlets of drugs. Some of the stores are allegedly violating various norms to make a fast buck. For instance, they are selling drugs without prescriptions from a doctor.

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Additionally, they are staffed by youngsters who pass intermediate or Class X in place of pharmacists.

In the latest trend, the stores are selling habit-forming drugs such as codeine-containing cough syrup, nitrazepam, pain killers, tablets meant for treating anxiety and panic disorders to addicts at exorbitant rates without maintaining records and producing relevant bills.

This was revealed during raids on the stores carried out by officials of the Drug Control Administration (DCA).

What are habit-forming drugs?

The drugs are prescribed as sedatives, but tend to be habit forming. They are often used for sedative effect, leading to addiction.

Abuse of these drugs can cause long-term and short-term health consequences, physical and psychological problems including psychotic behavior, seizures, respiratory issues, coma, depression or death due to overdose.

District Drug Inspector T Chandana said that show-cause notices were slapped against five stores for trading habit formation drugs in Mancherial. The stores were asked to reply to the notices within a fortnight.

Action would be initiated against the stores if their explanation was unsatisfactory. It’s a grave offence and punishable under Drugs and Cosmetics Act with imprisonment up to five years, she stated.

Meanwhile, officials of the DCA found that around 30 percent of medical stores were found to be operated without supervision of pharmacists. The officials warned the stores to deploy holders of either D-Pharm or B Pharm to monitor the sales of the drugs and to prevent health problems to patients.

It was learnt that the stores were paying somewhere around Rs.20,000 to Rs.30,000 to pharmacists per annum to obtain licenses from the DCA in order to trade the drugs.

“Pharmacy graduates are forced to work for meagre wages by handing over their certificates to the owners of the medical shops. Lack of vigilance by the officials concerned is attributed to the menace,” said a pharmacist.