The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has declared drug hawkers as merchants of death, saying most of the drugs they sell are counterfeit, substandard or expired.
Director-general of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, gave the warning yesterday at the flag-off of a media sensitisation workshop on the Dangers of Drug Hawking and Fruit Ripening with Calcium Carbide, in Abuja.
She said drug hawking exposes essential and life-saving medicines to degradation, counterfeiting, substandardisation, and expiration, which turn them to poisons.
“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 to poisons thus endangering human lives.
“Most of the drugs sold by the illiterate and semi-literate drug hawkers are counterfeit, substandard or expired, and therefore do not meet the quality, safety and efficacy requirement of regulated medicines.
“Drugs are sensitive life-saving commodities which should not be sold on the streets/motor parks or open markets just like any other article of trade,” she added.
The DG also stated that drug hawkers are major distributors and suppliers of narcotic medicines to criminal networks such as armed bandits, insurgents, kidnappers, and armed robbers.
She further warned that the agency’s enforcement officers are currently carrying out synchronized nation-wide operation to arrest and prosecute any drug hawker, adding that no offender will be spared from facing the full wrath of the law.
