Nigerians have been warned not to buy drugs from drug peddlers by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.
The agency claimed that the majority of drugs sold by hawkers are fake, subpar, and outdated and warned that those who sell the drugs are dealers in death.
The NAFDAC Director General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made this statement on Tuesday at the official start of the organization’s media education workshop on the risks of drug smuggling and artificially ripening fruit with calcium carbides.
The country’s healthcare delivery system is seriously threatened by the drug hawking epidemic, according to Prof. Adeyeye, who also noted that this illustrates the agency’s unwavering commitment to ending the illicit trade.
Many drug salespeople, she claimed, are “knowingly or unknowingly merchants of death” who expose vital and life-saving medications to the whims of bad weather, which causes the medications’ active ingredients to degrade and transform into poisons, endangering human lives.
“The majority of drugs sold by illiterate and semi-illiterate drug sellers are fake, subpar, or outdated, and as a result, do not meet the standards for quality, safety, and efficacy set forth for regulated medicines.
“Itinerant drug hawkers who also hold consultations, recommend, and prescribe medicines to their gullible patients also sell prescription drugs.”
She claims that major distributors and suppliers of narcotic medications to criminal organizations like armed bandits, insurgents, kidnappers, and armed robbers are drug peddlers.
Drug dealers, according to her, pose a serious threat to national security.
“Like any other form of commerce, selling drugs on the streets, in parking lots, or in open markets is dangerous and should not be done.
“I want to warn that anyone caught selling drugs will be prosecuted and sentenced to jail, and that our Enforcement Officers are currently conducting a synchronized nationwide operation. No criminal will be exempt from the full force of the law.
In order to rid the nation of this damaging and shameful practice, she said, “in this regard, we solicit the cooperation and support of all other Law Enforcement Agencies, Nigerian Journalists, and well-meaning Nigerians.”
