We take tramadol for our pains – June 3 disaster victims

Victims of the 2015 ‘June 3 disaster’ have revealed that they have had to rely on pain reliever tramadol to withstand the constant pain they feel in their bodies as a result of the national disaster.

Narrating their new lifestyle in graphic details to Starr News’ Asabea Akonor Thursday, the victims said they live under depraved conditions as a result of the incident.

“We have been ignored by everyone, the many things that we were promised have not been delivered as promised. Some of us can never be back to how we were. Our lives have been distorted in a very mean way.

“Those of us with deep and serious burns have had to rely on tramadol on daily basis to be able to stand the extent of pain. The pain is so severe that you just can’t do anything about it,” one of the victims told Asabea at a press conference in Accra.

On 3 June 2015, 154 lives were lost in devastating floods and fire explosions with over 150 persons sustaining various degrees of burns in the incident.

Meanwhile, the country’s drug and food regulatory body is faced with the task of ending the abuse of unapproved dosage of the Tramadol- that is allegedly smuggled into the country.

Alarming reports of Tramadol abuse, particularly among the youth who take it for recreational reasons in parts of the country, have become an issue of great national concern, calling for immediate intervention.

Reported incidence of addiction, armed robbery, youth vandalism, car accidents and in some cases violence have been linked to the influence of unapproved intake of Tramadol by perpetrators.