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Drug hawking booms despite ban


Despite the ban on drug hawking, hawkers seem to be on the increase. This is partly due to the protection they receive from illegal associations such as Medicine Sellers Association, MOTUNRAYO JOEL reports

 
Mrs. Mosun Wasiu does not only hawk drugs, she dispenses and even prescribes. Wasiu is neither a pharmacist nor doctor. The only thing she holds on to is the one-year training she had at a patent medicine store some years back. Since then, Wasiu has been selling drugs at various locations in Lagos.
The 38-year-old woman is not alone in this illegal sale of drugs. There are many like her in Lagos and beyond.
Although there have been several reports of vulnerable Nigerians who innocently purchased drugs from these hawkers and found themselves in hospital the next day, yet people still patronise them.
A female customer who declined to give her name said buying medicines from hawkers is convenient. “I don’t enjoy going through the stress of looking for pharmacies when I can just buy from them (hawkers). After all they both sell the same drugs.”
However, the assertion that genuine pharmacies and hawkers sell the same drugs may not be true after all. Findings by SUNDAY PUNCH show that while some of the hawkers sell a handful of genuine drugs, the majority of their products are sub-standard drugs that find their ways to the shores of Nigeria from China and India.
Our correspondent, who spoke to some drug hawkers on the streets of Lagos, said they knew their activity was illegal but believe their association, Medicine Sellers Association, will provide a form of security for them.
According to one of them, Wasiu, the association is “all over” Lagos, but that the Agege chapter has been shut down due to incessant raids by the task force.
She said, “Drug hawkers around Agege sell at their own risk.  As I attend to customers, I also watch out for the task force, they may decide to show up one night and once you’re caught, you will be arrested. But hawkers around Iyana Ipaja, Abule Egba, Ikeja and other parts of the state still enjoy protection from their association.”
When asked if the association was registered and approved by the Federal Government, Wasiu declined answering the question and said she had more important things to do.
A quick search on the internet shows that Medicine Sellers Association in Nigeria is not a registered organisation. But there is a Federal Government-approved Medicine Dealers Association of Nigeria, which has no link with Medicine Sellers Association in Nigeria.
Despite its illegality, SUNDAY PUNCH learnt that the Medicine Sellers Association in Nigeria provides drug hawkers with a licence to hawk drugs on the street. One benefits of being a member of the association according to one of them,  is that it gives them immunity from being arrested by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, and the police.
To be a member of the association, you must either be a nurse or have “some form” of training on drug prescription. “Some pharmacies offer training, just tell them you want to know more about drugs and their uses, and they will train you. It takes about a year,” said Chinedu Uju.
Another hawker, who identified herself as Kafayat, said the registration for such training ranges between N10,000 and N30, 000.
She said, “Joining the association wasn’t difficult. Anyone with a good knowledge of drug names and their uses can pass the association’s interview section. All you need to know are drug names and their uses. The registration fee ranges between N10,000 and N30,000, but you can negotiate with them.  During the interview section, the panel would test your knowledge of drug names and their uses, and if you pass, you would be given permission to hawk drugs.”
She also said apart from the registration fee which could be paid partly, prospective members are also asked to bring some food items.
A member of the association, Miss Yemi  Lawal, said, “On becoming a member of the association you will also be asked to bring a carton of juice, a packet of biscuit and other small items. This is just to certify your registration. After you’ve brought all these items, you will be showered with prayers.”
It was also learnt that membership of the association is a closely knit one. For instance, non-members of the association are not permitted to operate within the area where members sell.
“We know one another. If anyone who isn’t a member attempts to sell drugs close to where our member display his products; we will destroy the person’s products. You must be a member to hawk drugs within a particular area,” Lawal said.
When asked if she was not worried that the police and NAFDAC could arrest members of the association because their activities lacked legal backing, she said, “Our members receive some sort of protection from NAFDAC and the police because the leadership of the association settles them. Whenever anyone of them disturbs us, we report to our association and they take over the case from us.”
Another member of the association, Mrs. Funmi Badmus, who started her business with just N10,000 said she hardly runs out of stock because there is a pharmacy that supplies her.
Badmus said, “This is a good business, I’m making good money. I make nothing less than N15,000 a month, though it could be higher than this and at times lower, depending on how good or bad the business is. The profit depends on the variety of drugs I have in stock. I get my supply regularly from a pharmacy. There is hardly any drug that my customers request for that I do not get.
To avoid the prying eyes of the task force, most of the hawkers do not display their products until 6pm. The hawkers sell drugs such as painkillers, flu medicine, supplements and multi-vitamins, among others.
The secretariat of the association is located at Abule Egba. But on getting to the place, it is a pharmacy store that serves as the secretariat.  A sales girl at pharmacy declined speaking to our correspondent, and claimed that the president of the association had travelled.
The president of the association, who wished to be identified simply as Bolanle, told our correspondent on the phone that the association was not registered. She also said its members were mainly women.
“This association has been operating for three years and it consists of women. We formed this association to bring women together. Most of us sell drugs just to make a living. We are currently working on a project which is to open our own pharmacies. Most of these women are breadwinners in their families and they have bills to pay,” she said.
 
Bolanle said the association had no relationship with NAFDAC.

The Public Relations Officer, NAFDAC Oshodi office, Christiana Obiazikwor, said the association was an illegal one and that the agency would look into the matter.
“The association called Medicine Sellers Association in Nigeria is an illegal association. I’m not aware that such association exists. We will investigate this. And NAFDAC has no relationship with the association. It is impossible to settle NAFDAC with money or any other means. The agency operates on a high level, we detest corruption.”
However, the PRO said the agency was currently working on effective measures to strengthen the fight against drug hawking.
“We can’t do this alone, members of the public need to cooperate with us. This issue affects us all,” Obiazikwor said.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Ngozi Braide, said it was not within the purview of the police to deal with drug hawkers, adding that it was NAFDAC affair.
Braide said, “Police have nothing do with drug hawking. This is an issue that concerns NAFDAC and other drug law agencies. If these hawkers claim that their association bribes the police, what about other relevant agencies? Will it be possible to bribe them all? No policeman would want to put his job at risk protecting people who are breaking the law.
“Drug hawking is an offence that should be dealt with by the NAFDAC and other relevant agencies. Police have no business in this issue. People are fond of mentioning police when it comes to corruption. Thih is wrong. We have no business in this issue, so the police should not be brought into it at all.”
Apart from the common drugs that are hawked on streets, there are also hawkers of herbal medicines and sex enhancing drugs. Findings show that this category of hawkers are mainly patronised by the youth.
Speaking with our correspondent, a hawker, Mohammed Usman, who has been in the business for the past five years, assured our correspondent that his drugs could do “wonders.”
“My herbs are effective and affordable, I don’t sell fake drugs.  My customers always come back to buy from me because they trust my products,” Mohammed said.
Sex-enhancing drugs, which come in pornographic packs, cost between N150 to N350.
Usman added that he gets his products outside Lagos, “I get my supplies from Kano. When I’m out of stock, I either travel to Kano or ask my supplier to send the products to me.”
According to research, these drugs can have an adverse effect and experts say long use of certain sex-enhancing drugs may impact negatively on sperm quality.
Other risks associated with such drugs include cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, kidney failure and priapism, among many other side effects.

Studies show that men aged 45 and above, who are contending with erectile dysfunction, may find such drugs as the key to satisfactory sexual intercourse. However, younger men are getting hooked on such drugs for recreational purposes.
A doctor at the Lagos Health Commission, Oluwatoyin Ajayi, warned that these drugs could have an adverse effect on one’s vital organs and advised Nigerians to desist from taking them.

He said, “Some of the contents of such drugs are unknown and there is every possibility that our body organs can’t tolerate them. So, when one takes these drugs, the reactive agents in these drugs, which may be toxic, get stored and overtime destroys the heart, kidney and liver. Excreting these agents is always a major challenge.
“Consumers of these drugs may say that they have been using them overtime and nothing has happened to them, but the side effect of these drugs varies. It only takes 24 hours for some to cause a catastrophic effect in the body while others may take years. It all depends on the reactive agents in the drugs.”

He also warned that people should desist from buying any type of drug on the street.
He recommended that people should visit a hospital to get a doctor’s prescription before purchasing any drug, and buy  these drugs in a pharmacy.
“When our economy is affected, every other thing gets affected.  The prices of goods are rising, but no matter the case, Nigerians should not buy drugs from hawkers.  These drugs may be cheaper, but you end up paying more if any of your organs get damaged. A hospital is the best place to receive treatment.”
When asked who should prescribe drugs, he said doctors and not pharmacists should give prescriptions.
“A doctor is the one that examines the patient so he has more knowledge of the patient’s complaints,” he said.
The President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Dr. Olumide Akintayo, said drug hawking was an illegal act based on the Fake Drug Act.
He said, “In Section 2(1) of the Fake Drug Act, drug sales is prohibited in certain places such as ferry, market, kiosk. Drug hawking is also illegal. So, anyone found flouting this law is committing an offence.  Drug hawking is a dangerous act because these hawkers have no knowledge of drugs or what they are doing.
“I must say this is an issue which has been on for a long time, but the government has been benevolent and is not supporting the regulatory agencies that are fighting against this malaise.
“In some few petrol stations around the state, you see people hawking aphrodisiacs (sex-enhancing drugs) and people are buying these drugs. This is one of the reasons why there has been an upsurge in renal failure, cancer and other diseases.
“Many of these ailments can be traced to the consumption of these drugs.  Yet people are still buying these drugs. They seem not to be mindful of the damage these drugs cause in the body. PSN has been on the battle against drug hawking for some time now. To strengthen our campaign, we partnered with the human rights association. This is to let people know that they have a right to report people hawking drugs.
“We are currently conducting a survey which will be made public very soon. But as at 1998, a survey was conducted by the School of Medicine, University of Lagos, which showed that 49.6 per cent of fake drugs were traced to open market, 38.8 per cent of these drugs were traceable to patent medicine vendors. Therapeutic failure was at 10.8 per cent and 22 per cent were analgesic and six per cent antibiotics.”
Reacting to claims that some drug hawkers are nurses, he said it was wrong for nurses to hawk drugs since they were not trained as pharmacists.
“No nurse would want to go against the ethics of the profession.  Anyone who has been rightly trained in the profession will not indulge in drug hawking. It is only pharmacists that can brand themselves as custodians of medicine. So, if you must sell drugs, you should be a registered pharmacist,” Akintayo said.
He pointed out that the National Drug Policy stated that it was a pharmacist that could defend medicines and legitimately sell drugs.

PUNCH
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