TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Pharmacists in the state are not involved in the drug trade as is being alleged by the police, but is being done by those outside the profession.
Reacting to statements in a section of the media by Anti-Narcotic Cell Superintendent of Police Karthik Kashyap, President of the Chemists and Druggists Association of Goa B M Prabhudessai said that the trade practice in the state was strictly monitored and, black sheep if any, were sooner or later found out.
“In the first place only a very few pharmacies sell and stock drugs like ketamine and morphine, which has scope for misuse. It is only some pharmacies that are attached to hospitals that may be keeping these drugs,” Prabhudessai said.
“The industry faces random checks by Food and Drugs Administration inspectors. We have to keep a record of the medicines that are procured and those that are sold. If there is a mismatch between the two records, the FDA immediately sends a notice to the respective pharmacy and after a hearing, if found guilty of serious malpractices, the licence is suspended or revoked,” he said.
Earlier in the week, SP of the Anti Narcotic Cell had in an interview to PTI, did not rule out the role played by coastal area pharmacists in supplying drugs like ketamine and morphine into the State’s drug scene. While ketamine is a powerful anaesthetic, morphine is a pain killer used in terminal cancer patients to alleviate the severe pain they go through. Both these are reportedly misused by those seeking to get a high.
“These are being brought in the state by those outside the regular pharmacy business,” Prabhudessai said.
When asked about the incidence of foreign tourists buying medicines in bulk, he said it wasn’t a problem on account of the fact that it was part of the medical tourism.
“As long as there is a doctor’s prescription for that quantity of medicines, we will not have a problem dispensing it,” he said. “It is medical tourism,” he added.
The issue of the easy availability of medicines in bulk on account of they being cheaper in India than in Europe was also discussed in online travel forums, with some tourists expressing fear that on account of a crackdown on pharmacies in Goa, medicines in bulk would not be available.
