E-drug: Codeine Cough Mixture Abuse, BANGLADESH an example
---------------------------------------------
In Bangladesh, codeine containing cough preparations were banned in Drug
(Control) Ordinance 1982, due to its abuse potential as mentioned by
Consumers Association of Penang. As a consequence of "deregulation in
the name of liberalization", codeine phosphate and pholcodeine were
approved later as single ingredient antitussive agent.
According to law of Bangladesh, these agents are prescription only
medicine. However, the fallacy is "to become a prescriber in Bangladesh,
you need only a pen and a piece of paper". Even if someone don't have
those, he/she can buy drug from the pharmacy (there are very few
exceptions in this regard).
In this connection, I like to share another experience of Bangladesh
regarding codeine containing cough linctus "PHENSEDYL". It was
expected from the Indian experts that they mention few words about
"PHENSEDYL", a
combination of
Promethazine HCl 3.6 mg per 5 ml
Codeine Phosphate 9 mg per 5 ml
Ephedrine HCl 7.2 mg per 5 ml
Though this so-called cough suppressant is banned in Bangladesh,
"PHENSEDYL" is the number one abused medicine by the addicts in our
country and thereby producing huge social instability especially in the
youth encouraging them to commit crime. This experience and
observation could be referred to relevant regulatory authority to
justify banning of
codeine containing cough suppressant as either a combination or single
ingredient product. In addition, it should be mentioned here that
banning of such product in only one country is not sufficient.
Production of these codeine containing cough preparations in neighboring
country can also be disastrous. Therefore, the initiative of Consumers
Association of Penang should be supported by similar organizations of
other "PHENSEDYL" manufacturing countries.
Dr Md Sayedur Rahman
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmacology
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University
Shahbag
Dhaka
Bangladesh
Tel: +88 02 8619438 (Home)
+88 01 1840757 (Mobile)
E-mail: srkhasru@bdcom.com
AND
General Secretary
Health Action Forum (HAF) Trust
Dhaka, Bangladesh
E-mail: haf@bttb.net.bd
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html