There is a dire need to update and revise the K-P Drugs Sale Rules 1982
PESHAWAR: Community and retail pharmacies are often the first and last points of contact for patients with basic but sometimes large problems but many of these pharmacies are presently run by unqualified and non-professional personnel. The people working in these pharmacies should have sufficient knowledge about medicines, their effects on the human body, drug-drug and drug-food interaction, their safety during pregnancy and lactation and their hepatic and renal clearance. In case of major diseases like tuberculosis, diabetes, and heart diseases, this knowledge becomes more vital. Unfortunately, in my province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the prevailing drug sales rules are from 1982 and this business is in the hands of unqualified matriculate vendors. Their malpractice has caused many patients to resist antibiotics, self-medicate and misuse medicines. The federal government directed the provincial governments back in 2009 to amend and revise the drug sales rules of their respective provinces but to no avail. There is a dire need to update and revise the K-P Drugs Sale Rules 1982 by giving a role to professional and skilled pharmacists for the sake of ailing humanity and to stop the propagation of quackery and irrational use of medicines.
Najeeb Ullah
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2016.
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