PSN seeks death penalty for fake drug dealers
By Eberechi Obinagwam
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN has strongly suggested for a death penalty against fake-drug merchants, or in the minimum, life jail or fines not less than N20 million.
PSN President, Pharm. Ibrahim Tanko Ayuba who made the appeal on Thursday to the National Assembly during a press conference to announce the inauguration of the PSN President and new fellows of the PSN in Lagos, also commended NAFDAC for sanitizing the sector.
He said fake drug dealers are de facto murderers because anyone who tampers with life-savings commodities inherently sets out to kill ab initio.
Ayuba at the conference called on the National Assembly to urgently amend the existing Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Food Act to become a much more potent Act of parliament
According to him, apart from the dangers which Nigerians are familiar with in the case of fake drugs, the fake drink industry is also assuming a gargantuan crisis championed by modern-day merchants of death.
He noted that they are fully in support of what NAFDAC is doing. “NAFDAC is sanitizing the drug space. And if they succeed, and I want to believe they will succeed in sanitizing the drug market, everybody will smile and the drug space will be clean. We are working in the same goal. We commend the recent regulatory activities in leading to the enforcement of salient laws in some prominent drug markets in the South East and South West areas of the country.”
He also urged the federal government to take more responsibility by catalysing the full implementation of the National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG) which was officially commissioned in 2015 and comply fully with the relevant laws in order to achieve and safeguard public health for improved structure in the pharmaceutical sector.
He advised Nigerians to always go to the hospital whenever they feel ill and buy drugs from a registered pharmacy in cases where they need to buy over the counter drugs because, according to him, there are drugs you don’t have to see a doctor to buy. “Drugs are poisons, and poisons are drugs. If you want to buy drugs, go to a registered pharmacy and buy. A registered pharmacist will attend to you and properly advise and counsel you on how to take the drug. Let’s be cautious in buying drugs from non-professionals.”
