Chemical shops in Salaga accused of selling expired drugs

Residents of Salaga in the East Gonja district of the Northern Region are angry at licensed chemical shops in the township for allegedly selling expired drugs to unsuspecting clients.

According to one of the victims Sulemana Zakariah, he was asked to buy Promethasine to be used on his relative on admission only to be told it has expired when he took it to the health facility.

“I went and bought 4 of the drugs with my prescription form from different chemical shops and they are all expired and when we checked in all the boxes. They all have expired. I left the place and sent someone else to buy thinking they will dispose them off only for them to sell the same expired drugs to the person “he revealed

“Meanwhile two of the drugs have been used to inject the patient by a Nurse on duty at the Salaga government hospital but was later detected to have expired by the ward officer in charge of the emergency unit” he added.

In an interview with the chairman of the chemical sellers association in salaga Alhaji Osman, he said they are sometimes faced with the challenge of cross checking their medicines everyday and as a result sometimes sell expired drugs. “We don’t sell expired drugs intentionally but when an expired drug is sold and identified as such, it is immediately disposed off including the consignment of that particular drug” he added.

He also cautioned members of the association to be careful with the drugs they sell to the public since selling expired drug in itself is against the licensing act of the association.