Dimapur, October 5 (MExN): The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has written a letter to Health Minister Mansukh Ji Mandaviya with regard to the illegal sale of narcotic and psychotropic drugs by e-pharmacies.
This was stated in a press release issued by the Nagaland Medicine Dealers Association (NMDA), an affiliate of AIOCD on Wednesday.
According to the NMDA, the AIOCD reiterated that it has submitted various representations in for several years, regarding the illegality and menace caused by illegally operating e-pharmacies.”
“We have also been cautioning the Government that the increased footprint of e-pharmacies will be detrimental to the health of our country but our Government has not taken any visible action in this regard to date. But now, an e-pharmacy www.netmeds.com owned by India Billionaire Reliance Group Company has been caught red-handed selling medicines falling under Narcotics and Psychotropic Drugs disregarding legal provisions for profits,” it further said.
The AIOCD stated that medicines are not common commodities which can be sold on frivolous prescriptions sent online by clicking a snapshot, and that there may be several instances similar to the recent incident involving the warehouse of netmeds.com in Bathinda which never came into public knowledge.
According to the AIOCD, there are also reports that factories from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have been selling spurious drugs online through such platforms.
“Our government doesn’t want to see the long and short-term catastrophes these e-pharmacies are causing. The government is so fascinated by the Start Up’s that, waiting for risk of lives of our citizens, and cause thousands of death?” it questioned.
Further, the AIOCD also underscored that there is already a “grave threat from Anti Microbial Resistance which we are facing and to increase it further, we have these e-pharmacies which are willing to sell narcotics for some meagre profits.”
Calling on the Government to take cognisance of the threats to public health, the AIOCD cautioned that it would be too late to repair the loss is action is not taken now.
“AIOCD had the hope that at least now Govt will do something to stop these illegally operating e-pharmacies which are against the laws, health, spirit and conscience of our country,” it added.
