Chemists warned on sale of psychotropic drugs

Kulwinder Sandhu

Tribune News Service

Moga, March 11

The state government has issued a fresh warning to all chemists in the state to comply with provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and stop selling habit-forming psychotropic drugs, or face action.

Health Minister Surjit Kumar Jyani has called a meeting of all Chief Surgeons on March 12 to discuss the issue so that a concrete policy could be adopted to tackle the problem of drug abuse.

The authorities reportedly conducted 931 raids in the state in 2015 and action was initiated against chemists found violating provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. The licences of 717 chemists were suspended and drugs worth Rs 6,87,04,527 seized from 275 chemists/persons during joint inspections.

In January 2016, allopathic drugs worth Rs 9,60,552 were seized from 14 chemists/persons and four court cases filed. “Action is being initiated against persons/firms for selling spurious drugs,” said Barjinder Singh Brar, Chairman of the Punjab State Health Systems’ Corporation.

At least 15 drug manufacturers/suppliers had been blacklisted by the corporation over the past couple of months.

The police also registered more than 500 criminal cases against chemists under the NDPS Act for selling psychotropic drugs over the past couple of years.

A copy of a document available with The Tribune reveals that the health corporation collected samples of syringes/needles and bandages a few months ago. Samples of Suru International Private Limited, Albert David Limited and EPU Blema Company failed quality tests, but no legal action has been taken against these firms so far.