The move comes just months after the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) issued fresh guidelines on merchandising of cough syrups to put an end to the abuse of codeine, a sleep-inducing and analgesic drug derived from morphine.
The umbrella body for pharmacists says it has so far trained over 70 people to collect information on chemists that violate ethics like giving medication without demanding a customer provides a doctor’s authorization.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya (PSK) has deployed mystery shoppers across the country to identify establishments that are selling drugs without a doctor’s prescription and exposing the public to harm.
The move comes just months after the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) issued fresh guidelines on merchandising of cough syrups to put an end to the abuse of codeine, a sleep-inducing and analgesic drug derived from morphine.
The umbrella body for pharmacists says it has so far trained over 70 people to collect information on chemists that violate ethics like giving medication without demanding a customer provides a doctor’s authorization.
Information will then be presented to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to institute criminal charges for exposing public to harm.
PSK says it is targeting major towns like Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Nyeri where pharmarcies are coming up.
“Raids are no longer working. We have trained mystery shoppers to go round the country buying drugs without prescription so as to nail the culprits who have been doing this business,” PSK president Louis Machogu told the Business Daily yesterday.
He said that body has out to streamline the primary pharmaceutical care sector that is currently chaotic, leaving patients exposed.
The move comes on the back of a spike in medication abuse, with the latest trend being teenagers mixing pharmaceutical drugs with soft drinks, alcohol and miraa or even taking them straight from the bottle to get high.
Among the most abused drugs sold over the counter include opioids used for pain relief and codeine which is present in cough syrups and is used as a pain reliever.
PSK says it is also working with the Law Society of Kenya to open criminal proceedings against pharmacy owners who have employed non-registered personnel to give advice and medication to customers.
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