PHARMACIES BUSTED SELLING CHALK AS DRUGS

MBABANE – A trip to the pharmacy could be similar to a game of Russian roulette.

This is because chalk is now being sold over the counter by certain pharmacies under the guise of medical drugs.
According to the Director of Health Services, Dr Vusi Magagula, in a bid to protect the citizenry from illicit counterfeit drugs that swarm local pharmacies, the Ministry of Health partnered with the International Police (Interpol) to raid local pharmacies and confiscate fake drugs.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines counterfeit medicine as ‘one which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source’.  Both branded and generic products are faked.

In some parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, more than 30 per cent of the medicines on sale can be fake, notes the organisation.
Dr Magagula said the issue of counterfeit drugs in the country was so severe that most tablets or pills were fake. This, he said, contributed to many deaths every year and could also have a more collateral effect, as patients may develop immunity to genuine treatment for certain diseases, like tuberculosis.

“In some of the raids, we discovered that chalk was sculpted such that it passed out to be a drug and was sold to the gullible public,” Dr Magagula said.
He noted that the syndicate managing the counterfeit pharmaceuticals was devious and had the technical know-how to shape a piece of chalk or some flour or starch into a tablet or pill.
Dr Magagula further said labelling and packaging was often imitated to perfection.

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