Tweet
Increasing numbers of Jamaicans, especially young teenage boys, appear to be endangering themselves by self-medicating with pharmaceutical drugs and experimental drugs without consulting health professionals.
Many gain easy access to a wide cache of drugs through street-side vendors involved in operating lucrative “open air pharmacies” on the sidewalks of downtown Kingston.
The vendors provide prescription drugs to persons who want to avoid the added expense and inconvenience of going to a doctor to get medication for an illness, or to males who are seeking to inject a big boost in their sexual performances.
<span style="font-weight: bold">The illegal trade has left the health sector baffled about how so many different kinds of prescription drugs could have found their way on the street side</span>, and duly concerned about the health risk involved in the abuse of these drugs.
Street-side vendors ply their wares in the vicinity of pharmacies in the busy commercial hub of downtown Kingston, openly displaying prescription drugs along with regular wares on their stalls.
<span style="font-weight: bold">The vendors have stockpiled a stunning variety of products from skin-lightening creams to antidepressants to antibiotics</span>. “The practice is very popular and the vendors have a lot of prescription drugs on their stalls. They sell steroidal cream, vaginal inserts for thrush, ampicillin (red-and-black tablets), amoxicillin, sleeping pills, Retardin (cinchocaine) for men with a premature ejaculation problem, and antibiotics for yeast infection,” said a pharmacist who works in downtown Kingston, and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“I have even seen men peddling the ampicillin and other antibiotics in transparent plastic bags on the wire-things that you see the peanut vendors with. It is quite blatant, they sell right in front of the pharmacies,” the pharmacist said.
According to sources, several schoolboys have been known to purchase medication to deal with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), yeast infections or to enhance sexual performance. Young women and men often purchase the stronger types of bleaching cream to ‘tone down’ their complexion.
However, the biggest sellers are drugs that appear to boost sexual libido and performance such as Viagra, Cialis and Anafranil, or the gungo as it is known in the local parlance.
<span style="font-weight: bold">The “gungo” or the “boom” (Anafranil), an antidepressant, is sometimes used by local men to delay orgasm</span>. Cialis or Tadalafil is an orally administered drug for treating erectile dysfunction which is sometimes called the Weekend Pill because of its 36-hour window of effectiveness.
<span style="font-weight: bold">However, another new experimental drug is called the Z100 and it is apparently the rage among schoolboys </span>who more often than not do not have erectile dysfunction problems but still indulge in these rituals <span style="font-weight: bold">which are a part of Jamaica’s drug-taking subculture.</span>
“The Z100 mad, <span style="font-weight: bold">it ah the maddest ting, dem call it the Zinger, is a blue pill but it bad like yaws</span>. It better than Viagra because yu can drink and smoke wid it, anytime yu ready, it de de, yu just have to mek sure yu cut it inna three…the little schoolboy dem love it,” one street-side supplier said.
You can get four Viagra pills for $2,500 and the Z100 will set you back $700 for one pill.
However, despite the enthusiasm of the public and the vendors for these products, the practice could spell danger for the wider population.
“These drugs may be addictive, and it may induce persons taking them to consume larger doses just to get a similar effect,” the pharmacist said. “People also run additional risks because they tend to diagnose themselves and take what they think appropriate. The danger is that their diagnosis could be incorrect or they take the wrong remedy.”
When XtraNews visited downtown Kingston last week, several boxes of steroidal creams such as Betnovate (betamethasone) and Dermovate (clobetasol) were seen on display on various stalls, as well as Canesten for certain vaginal infections, and Retardin cream for those pesky premature ejaculations.
Ms. Grace Creary, acting director of the Pharmaceutical Regulatory Division in the Ministry of Health, told a reporter that she could not provide any information on the practice “at this time”.
When pressed for a response, Ms. Creary reiterated that she could not provide any information.
“I can’t comment, I am not in a position to do so,” she said.
An officer from the investigative unit at the Ministry of Health also said the unit had no prior knowledge of the practice.
In the meantime,<span style="font-weight: bold"> sources say that the vendors get their stocks through “back-door links at legitimate pharmacies and through other links at Customs when the shipments come in</span>”. Meanwhile, one pharmacist confirmed what one supplier had opined that there were “back-door links at some pharmacies”. She said she knew of instances where “pharmacists found that drugs had disappeared from dispensaries overnight.”
“We need to tighten up inventory control. Pharmacists have to delegate responsibilities because they are sometimes busy, so maybe, persons who are authorized to buy drugs could be buying drugs on behalf of the pharmacy but funnelling it to the streets. That could be a route because there is no stipulation that orders for a pharmacy be signed by the pharmacist,” another pharmacist said.
Checks with Medimpex Ja. Ltd., which is one of three distributors of Canesten cream and vaginal tablets (clotrimazole) used for fungal infections of the skin and vagina, did not reveal any additional information. Carimed and Lasco are the other two who supply Canesten.
“I cannot speak to the warehousing, but we are not aware of any pilferage. What is ordered is what has been received. The practice is something we have heard of, but we have no idea how the product gets on the street,” Marcia McBean, marketing supervisor of Medimpex Ja. Ltd, told a reporter.
XtraNews contacted Lester Woolery, chairman of the Pharmacy Council of Jamaica (PCJ), which regulates the sector and issues licences to operate, who admitted that he was aware of the practice.
“The practice has been a great concern to the Pharmacy Council for some time. We have in the past had an active campaign in collaboration with the Pharmaceutical Division in the Ministry of Health to attack the problem and get people to desist from selling bleaching cream products on the street,” Mr. Woolery said.
He added that the inspectors would get together and “seek some technical input in the field to determine the extent of the problem”.
Mr. Woolery also frowned on the practice of members of the public self-medicating with antibiotics.
“Ampicillin is a drug if not taken in the right dosages could build up a tolerance in the person taking it and that person could become hyper-sensitive and eventually that person could conceivably go into anaphylactic shock and die,” Mr. Woolery warned.
Anaphylaxis is a severe, whole-body allergic reaction. After an initial exposure (“sensitizing dose”) to a substance like bee sting toxin, the person’s immune system becomes sensitized to that allergen. On a subsequent exposure (“shocking dose”), an allergic reaction occurs. This reaction is sudden, severe, and involves the whole body. Anaphylactic shock can lead to death in a matter of minutes if left untreated.
One doctor who spoke with XtraNews on condition of anonymity said: “The self-medicating route is pitted with danger and guaranteed failure and, oftentimes, death. You’ve probably seen the dangers of self-medicating more than you’ve seen the dulling of personality by prescription drugs. Self-medicating is the greater danger because there is no third party control – like a doctor or even a pharmacist – who can keep an eye on dosages and help answer clinical questions and monitor behavior.”
“It’s a complex problem, and it has been leading to the development of resistant strains of bacteria within the population because people are not taking the antibiotics for the prescribed length of time so the bacteria comes back with greater force,” he said.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Health officials are curious to know the source of the illegal supply of pharmaceutical drugs from overseas locales to the streets of Jamaica.</span>“Canesten is an over-the-counter drug in the Caribbean and the USA, so a higgler could easily pick up the drug in Miami and carry it here…we’d like to find out the source, especially with the sale of antibiotics. We know it is out there, but we have not been able to do anything about it. There is some sort of illicit trade going on somewhere,” one official said.
He added that, “The PCJ had in the past already asked the police to help raid these people, and it was done but now it appears the problem is worsening again.”
However, checks with the Central CIB revealed that the police had “no reports or intelligence on the matter.”
Representative from other pharmaceutical manufacturers all reported that there had been “no stock missing from any shipments at the wharves in the last six months although there had been problems in the past with short shipments.”
Comment