# \[e-drug\] Codeine Cough Mixture Abuse, BANGLADESH example

**URL:** <https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-codeine-cough-mixture-abuse-bangladesh-example/13641>\
**Category:** e-drug\
**Created:** [February 11, 2002, 2:29am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-codeine-cough-mixture-abuse-bangladesh-example/13641 "2002-02-11T02:29:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dr\_Md\_Sayedur\_Rahman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dr\_Md\_Sayedur\_Rahman](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/Dr_Md_Sayedur_Rahman)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2002, 2:29am UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-codeine-cough-mixture-abuse-bangladesh-example/13641/1 "2002-02-11T02:29:50Z")

</div>

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)  
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;+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](http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html)
