To check drug abuse in Punjab, all the State drug control officials have been asked to direct all carrying and forwarding (C&F) agents to supply data of habit forming drugs being supplied to various dealers in Punjab every month.
Also, each drug inspector has been asked to check the data to ensure that the drugs are actually supplied to the licence holder only. The move to weed out bogus sales to dealers which results in these drugs falling into the hands of drug addicts was taken during a review meeting of officials of Food and Drug administration of the state on Friday under the chairmanship of state Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration Hussan lal.
lal has asked the officers to inspect the premises of dealers to ensure that drugs are being sold as per the norms and rules.
With an aim to keep a check on the sale of habit-forming-drugs, the drug inspectors were told to maintain adequate vigilance in their areas and carry intensive scanning of their areas and make sure that no unlicenced shops are being run there.
Besides, lal directed that all wholesale chemist shops, especially ones being run in rural areas, must be inspected from time-to-time as these shops are not manned by pharmacists and need to be ensured occasionally that these were not indulging in retail business of medicines or any other unethical practice. He asked the officials to check the stocks and records of these shops and in case any defaulters are detected, strict action must be pursued against them.
lal informed that during August to October 2013, a total of 326 licences in the State had been suspended and two were cancelled in respect of contraventions of the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and Rule 1945. At present, 567 cases are under trial in various district courts against the defaulters. Six cases have been decided in these three months by various courts, out of these four were convicted and two were declared as proclaimed offenders.