Wholesalers of pharmaceutical products have called on the Pharmacy Council and other relevant stakeholders to begin a sensitization programme for some traders believed to be patronising medicines from drug peddlers.
According to them, the traders are ignorant about the health complications of buying from the peddlers, called for the intensification of education.
This comes on the back of a directive by the Pharmacy Council to stop doing business with wholesalers who sell medicines to unlicensed retailers and drug peddlers which ultimately get to unsuspecting consumers.
Speaking to Citi News on condition of anonymity, a wholesaler at Okaishie in the Central Business District of Accra urged key stakeholders to urgently plan a roadmap to sensitize consumers.
“Not selling to them is not a problem, no matter what the situation will be, they will still do it. In my view, it’s just a matter of educating them and if there’s a way out, they can sell without letting the efficacy of the medicine come down”.
“For me, there is no way they could stop, it’s a matter of all the shareholders in the pharmaceutical business putting their heads together to draw a plan on how to solve the issue,” An anonymous wholesaler at Okaishie in Accra opined.
Some drug peddlers are sometimes seen in public buses selling drugs to unsuspecting passengers and traders.