Don’t buy drugs from hawkers

It is a common to find hawkers moving and shouting in buses selling medicines to unsuspecting passengers even though the practice is illegal. They even attempt to explain how a particular medicine works.

But the campaign to control the sale of drugs in buses and other unauthorised places in Uganda has been the biggest issue for the National Drug Authority (NDA). The Authority uses brochures, leaflets and other forms of media or platforms.

NDA is trying to curb the sale of drugs in buses and in other unauthorised places that is rampant nowadays in our roads. And there seems to be no one interested in stopping this vice and yet it’s a secret killer.

However, in order to avoid wilfully killing ourselves through buying medicines from hawkers for self-medication, we must take NDA’s campaign message seriously. We must know that buying illegal drugs is a crime. Don’t do it.

Unemployment is to blame for forcing some people, especially the youth into hawking drugs in buses or at stages. It is a means of earning a living. Yes, it may be true! But it brings untold suffering to people who buy such medicines.

There is also a misconception that everyone should be a salesperson and this seems to have captured all the glory. Our Members of Parliament need to wake and make a stringent law against the sale of drugs in buses and other unauthorised places such as bars, restaurants, streets, etc.

NDA has on several occasions warned us against buying medicines from hawkers as this endanger the lives of the buyers.
NDA ensures that patients access quality, safe and efficacious human and veterinary medicines and other healthcare products from qualified health workers. NDA regulates human and veterinary medicines, including herbal or traditional medicines, nutritional food substances, medical devices such as (condoms, medical gloves), and public health products like insecticides and mosquito nets.

NDA offers quality assurance mechanisms, market authorisation by reviewing and assessing the dossier to support a medical product, subjecting pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities to current good practices such as inspection before registering the medicine.

It also ensures that it carries import control prior to entry of drugs into the country and inspections are carried out at the ports of entry at Mombasa port.

Julius Odeke,
[email protected]