Youths falling prey to home-delivered drugs without proper prescription

Ordering random medicines over the phone can lead to serious health problems, experts warn.

Ordering consumer goods to be delivered home is just a call away. From groceries to veggies, pizzas to biryani, everything is delivered at your doorstep. Now, this convenience has been extended to ordering medicines over the phone without a proper prescription — an illegal practice.

Experts warn that ordering random drugs over the phone can lead to serious health problems.

 Unfortunately, the trend is fast catching up among youngsters who often go for pills to get over the hangover. Some of the drugs also claim to enhance the experience of consuming liquor.

Youth easy target

Youths are an easy target of advertisements which are being constantly bombarded over radio stations and the Internet.

 The number of youths falling prey to such gimmicks is high, in the absence of any mechanism to monitor the delivery of medicines on the doorstep. With stiff competition among traditional chemists/druggists and corporate pharmacies, norms like cross-checking prescription before selling drugs are being flouted with impunity.

V Hari Krishnan, president of Bangalore District Chemists’ and Druggists’ Association, said: “Our association has over 3,000 members who do not to deliver drugs on the doorstep. Ever since the new drug control law came into force from March this year, we have been strictly prohibited from selling drugs without prescription.”

State Drugs Controller, Raghuram Bhandari, said: “We are registering cases and penalising chemists based on the complaints we receive. A chemist was booked for selling pills without prescription and the medicines were confiscated recently. Another chemist was recently was raided.”

He added that selling and buying drugs/medicines without prescription is illegal and therefore, a punishable act.

According to experts, youngsters who consume over-the-counter drugs are not aware of their harmful affects.

A senior doctor at a government hospital said that many a time, the drugs contain hazardous substances like arsenic which adversely affects the brain when mixed with alcohol. All norms are flouted while making these drugs, he added.