Two things were on the agenda when patent medicine dealers and personnel of the Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) gathered in Enugu State for a one-day seminar organised by the anti-drug agency. One was how the medicine dealers could improve on their trade for the over-all good of the consumers. The other was the dangers of hard drug and how its use could be controlled.
Over 1000 dealers from all the local government councils of Enugu State as well chiefs of security agencies were attended the event.
The Enugu State commander of the NDLEA, Anthony Ohanyere in his welcome address told participants that three topics were to be treated. These include “Patent Medicine Practice, Scope and Limitations” which has been articulated to enlighten patent medicine practitioners on the do’s and don’ts of their profession.
The second, he said, was “Hard Drug Consumption and Criminal Liability: Issue of drug control” as crucial in the sense that patent medicine are vulnerable to frequent arrests for dispensing psychotropic substances.
The third topic “Consequences of drug abuse on National Development was carefully selected to sensitise all participants on the need to be conscious of the implications of drug abuse on the nation and its development.
Ohanyere told the participants at the seminar that the only way patent medicine dealers can earn their well deserved respect among the populace was by sticking to the necessary rules and regulations guiding the practice.
“There is therefore the need for members to be aware of the implications of being caught with such substances,” he admonished.
The commander said: “It is my belief that at the end of the seminar, we would all be more enlightened and better prepared to face the challenges occasioned by the unfortunate incidence of drug abuse and trafficking.”
One revelation made at the seminar was that everybody abuses or consumes hard drug almost on a daily basis. The revelation was made by one of the resource persons at the seminar, Jacob Momodu. According to him, “the man that drinks coffee each morning either at home or in the office is consuming drug; the colanut ritualized and eaten at each celebration at any gathering here in Enugu state is drug consumption; the accomplished banker who settles down with a bottle of beer at the end of the day is consuming drug.”
Momodu, however, explained that the difference in the categories of drug consumption were that some “took socially acceptable drugs – kolanut, beer etc while others took to pathological drug to prevent diseases while yet others consumed hard drug abused volatile substances.”
He said that although all these were the norm, the one purpose of the seminar was hard drugs which he described as “the opposite of medicine or orthodox drug. It is just as night is today, as good is to bad; it is the functional street and household names for narcotic drugs psychotropic substance.”
He said the crescendo of drug consumption is addiction and drug addiction is the physiological and psychological dependence on drug of abuse. Adding that an addict goes to any length to steal, pawn valuables, undergo illegitimate means such as prostitution, begging and telling lies to getting his drug of abuse.
He expressed fears that there was enough evidence to show, at any rate, a growing and unbroken trend of hard drug consumption and criminality in Enugu state. “It cuts across all social strata. Research report has shown that the adolescents and young adults who are the future and hope of the society constitute a risk for hard drug consumption and subsequent criminality.
At the seminar, the patent medicine dealers were educated on their limitations. These includeselling products in their original packs, boxes, packets, foils and covers as packed by the manufacturer and he the unit pack sizes that may be sold by vendors are limited to 100s and below for tablets 200ml or less for liquid preparation, vendors shall procure medicine from registered premises, they must not engage in surgical procedures and they shall not run hospitals, maternity and clinics.
They are also not to engage in administering injections or set up IVF, they must not open or operate branches of their of their licensed shops and shall not advertise drugs for the cure, treatment, prevention of diseases specified in the schedule of the Food and Drug Decree of 1990.
They shall as well not deal in narcotics and psychotropic substances as these products are drugs classified into cannabinoids-marijuana, depressants-barbitutates and BDZs, dossociative anaesthetics and hallucinogens-mescaline and LSD.
