How safe are Ugandan pharmacies?

Trading in pharmaceuticals is one of the booming businesses in Kampala. After every few metres, you find a pharmaceutical/drug shop, but the question is; "How is the Health Ministry and National Drug Authority (NDA) implementing checks and balances on these so many pharmacies that keep mushrooming?"

The licensing and distribution of pharmacies is a neglected area of focus by the concerned authorities relative to the current focus on the trafficking of "hard" drugs throughout the East African region.

Legal pharmaceutical substances/drugs do not generally have the strong psychoactive effects of the likes of heroin and cocaine because they are usually consumed for therapeutic purposes. They are therefore widely accessible and socially accepted.

But this is being abused by both drug addicts and illicit drug dealers who procure certain drugs on the market for use in the manufacture of narcotic substances which are harmful to health.

Wikipedia defines illicit drug trade as a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of drugs that are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade of many types of drugs through the use of drug prohibition laws, except those under license.

Since compliance with these regulations under resource-limitation is poor, there is need to understand the predictors in order to reduce the risk of prescription, drug misuse and drug use disorders.

Illicit drug trade is mainly run by foreign nationals from the South American cartels, West African cartels especially Nigerians, Pakistanis, and Indians who are using our country as a transit for illegal drugs. This is aided by corruption which has turned Uganda into a drug transit hub for Europe and America.

The history of this illegal trade raises important questions about state control over drug use, distribution and public health, especially as their unregulated distribution could mean a lack of quality assurance and increased health risks for users.

The importation and exportation of substandard drugs especially from Asian countries like India, China, and Pakistan is a threat to public health, which can be blamed on concerned government officials and the exporting countries for failing to regulate the quality of drugs traded. Sub-standard medicines cease to serve their medical purpose of improving the health of the sick person.

According to research conducted around Kampala and Jinja, some Indian and Pakistani-owned pharmacies are smuggling drugs from Kenya to Uganda via Lake Victoria and selling them on the black market.

Smuggled drugs include synthetic opioids such as Pethidine, Epidural, Entonox, Fentanyl, morphine, codeine. These drugs are being illegally acquired and distributed from pharmacies, and when abused, they can be dangerous to health. A research by Kamba etal  titled; ‘Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention, and Policy', also highlighted that there is sub-optimal compliance to controlled prescription drug regulations among Uganda pharmacies.

So many Ugandan youth have been turned into prisoners of drug addiction affecting a proportion of Uganda's productivity rate as a result of increased mental illness, drug related deaths and violence.

Your doctor must have told you that, multiple prescription drugs taken beyond the prescribed dosage are toxic to the liver, kidneys and other organs. It can also affect the brain resulting into mental illness. Worse still, it may cause death as a result of an addiction.

Some drugs such as Opioid analgesics (commonly referred to as prescription opioids) and natural opioids including morphine, codeine and semi-synthetic opioids including drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone and oxymorphone are very deadly and are illegally imported into the country.

NDA is putting more effort on regulating the sale of fake and expired drugs on the market, which is good. However, more emphasis should be put on control of drug use and distribution. Drug overdose is as equally dangerous as taking expired or fake drugs. We agree that we all get sick and everybody needs medicine to get better, but abusing drugs is damaging.

As we continue to celebrate the youth day, let it be everyone's responsibility to safe guard our youth who are being targeted by drug dealers to be co-opted in their illegal drug business because the youth are the future of this country.

Let us keenly monitor and identify pharmacies/individuals who are involved / facilitating this illegal drug trade for the safety of our communities and for a vibrant productive youthful generation.

By Herbert Muwanika - the writer is a researcher