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NAFDAC launches campaign, clampdown on indiscriminate drug hawking in South-East
- By Obinna Onuorah
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has called for massive enlightenment of citizens on the dangers of drug hawking, ripening of fruits with calcium carbide, and consumption of substandard products in Nigeria.
- The agency also vowed clampdown on drug peddlers and traders who indulge in the harmful practices of artificial fruits ripening in parts of the southeast geopolitical zone of the country.NAFDAC dropped the hint on Tuesday during a media sensitization program organized by the agency in conjunction with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) South-Eastern region held at the Federal secretariat, Awka Anambra state.The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Moji Adeyeye, in her remarks, urged Journalists to join the agency in the fight against drug hawking as it poses a great threat to everyone in the southeast and Nigeria at large. Adeyeye, represented by NAFDAC’s Director of Evaluation and Research, Dr. Leonard Omokpariola, described drug hawking as a huge threat to the healthcare sector in the country and reiterated the agency’s readiness to put an end to the illegal drug trade in the country with the help of the media at large.She said: “Drug hawkers are also the major distributors and suppliers of narcotic medicines to criminal networks such as armed bandits, insurgents, kidnappers, and armed robbers. Drug hawkers constitute a serious threat to our national security.According to the NAFDAC boss, many drug hawkers are knowingly or unknowingly merchants of death who expose essential and life-saving medicines to the vagaries of inclement weather which degrade the active ingredients of the medicine and turn them into poisons thus endangering human lives. “Prescription drugs are also sold by the itinerant drug hawkers who also consult, recommend, and prescribe medicines to their gullible patients,” she adds.On the issue of fruit ripening with carbide, she explained that it can cause skin cancer, organ failure, permanent skin damage, skin ulcer, and so many other illnesses. “The impurities are hazardous to pregnant women and children and may lead to headache, dizziness, mood disturbances, mental confusion, memory loss, cerebral oedema (swelling in the brain caused by excessive fluids), sleepiness, seizure, etc.“Consuming such artificially ripened fruits could result in sleeping disorders, mouth ulcers, skin rashes, kidney problems, and possibly even cancer”, she added.Adeyeye also urged Journalists to help disseminate information on the dangers of drug hawking and fruit ripening to the masses at large in order to curb the danger it poses to mankind. She also mentioned the importance of whistle-blowing as it helps the agency in winning the war against fake and substandard drugs. She also urged well-meaning individuals to report anyone doing something bad especially tampering with the expiry date of any product, adding that NAFDAC enforcement officers are on the alert to catch perpetrators. “None of them will be spared from facing the full wrath of the law”, she vowed.