My Naija News - Coming soon to a bus near you: Peddlers of illegal drugs

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Coming soon to a bus near you: Peddlers of illegal drugs

Written by Tessa Doghor

Tuesday, 21 October 2008

They are usually semi-literate or almost at the same educational level as their unsuspecting buyers. They usually have deals of too-good-to-be-true drugs that can do just about anything. Most times, they are expired drugs, and when they are not expired, they are non FDA approved drugs. Most of these drugs are from Malaysia, China and other parts of Asia. The components of the drugs are most times strange; one common component that is not yet known as approved is “ginseng”. This component is not yet approved by NAFDAC (National Authority on Foods and Drug Approval Committee) because it is termed dangerous and can do great harm.

These peddlers are many times found in Molue buses and in Eko Transport Buses. They often start with a prayer or a joke to endear themselves to their potential clients. They usually get straight to the point after the preliminary and provide three different kinds of drugs ranging from skin products to products alleviating stress and headaches and finally, to multivitamins. They usually introduce new ‘unheard of’ drugs all the time and tempt customers by claiming they offer a better price than if the customers were to buy the drugs elsewhere. Where on earth would they find such drugs to buy apart from in molue buses?

The drug peddlers are unknown, have no form of identification or a forwarding address where they can be reached if God forbid, any side effects arise from the usage of the drugs. They are not affiliated to any of the major pharmaceutical companies or to the Ministry of Health and judging by their educational status, they are more money driven than customer focused. It is most likely that they are as ignorant of the drugs they promote as they are obviously not the manufacturers of the drugs?

Mrs. Ada Okafor of Mafoluku, Oshodi was irritated with the antics of one of the drug peddlers she was inopportune to meet selling what he claimed was ‘medicated soap’ with screams of N300, N300, N300 and medicated, medicated, medicated all the while screaming in a terrible nasal voice and scratching all the parts of his body in a frenzy indicating to the uninformed mind will do wonders. One can imagine how many cash-strapped Nigerians may buy these supposed medicated soaps? How much damage or side-effects arise from these unabridged entries of drugs in the market? Who supervises the entry of the drugs into the Nigerian market?

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