The Zambia Medicine Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA) says is has noted with great concern that some sections of society have continued abuse of Codeine a Psychotropic substance known as Ichinyelele which is contained in off the shelf benylin.
ZAMRA Public Relations Office Ludovic Mwape said the authority is mandated to ensure drugs put on the Zambian market consistently meet the required standards and it is contemplating changes to the expert committee proscription drug list to restructure the mode of sale for this pharmaceutical product for people to start producing prescriptions before procuring the drug.
“As it is, it’s an off the shelf pharmacy product and anyone can get it from a drug store without producing a prescription. We also want to appeal to professionals stationed in these pharmacies to be able to inquire if they persistently see somebody in repeated purchases, then they should be calls for concern”.
“No one can be taking this product unless there is something troubling them and you can not continue taking this drug because it is very addictive, if you have a cough and taking Benylin Codeine and no improvement, you need get the advise from a licensed medical practitioner so that you change the medical product,” he explained.
Mwape told the Zambian Business Times – ZBT in an interview Wednesday morning that it calls for professionalism and sensitization in terms of the way the drug is being dispensed to people that are abusing the substance and it has a negative impact on the economy, as once one get addicted to intoxication, it leads to low productivity.
“As an institution that is mandated to do that, we are considering putting up restrictions in terms of who is importing this medicine in the country and on how this product is being dispensed, obviously we are going to tighten controls around this product to deal with the public concerns”.
We have already started this as when we visit a pharmacy, we want to know were the product is coming from and we look for receipts and relevant documentations of were this drugs are coming from and where they are sold and to whom,” he noted.
He acknowledged that there are other informal ways this drug is been imported by people who are not registered and are selling it. “Members of the public should be reporting these cases either to police or ZAMRA in order curb the practice”.
When Importing any drug in Zambia, you have to get a permit from ZAMRA and there is a robust screening process at the port of entry. But of course the problem is also that there are certain boarder areas which are porous, you find our presence is not there and this product comes in,” Mwape lamented.
He narrated that last year, ZAMRA closed down a number of facilities and owners were sensitised on a one on one basis on the need for them to comply those that were selling illegally.
Zambia has a huge youth population that needs tangible solutions to ensure engagement and employment is provided to drive productivity.
Failure to come up with proper interventions at both government and community level will compromise the future viability of the Zambian economy. It remains to be seen if Zambia will leverage the demographic dividend from its youthful population.
