Nasty medicine facing 150 dodgy drugstores
Nasty medicine facing 150 dodgy drugstores
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government will bring 150 drugstore owners across the country
to court for selling fake drugs and illegally selling medicines
that require doctor's prescriptions, Food and Drug Monitoring
Agency (BPOM) chairman Sampurno said on Wednesday.
"We would urge the courts to impose heavy sentences on them as
their crimes endangers many people's lives," Sampurno said in a
conference on the outcome of BPOM raids against illegal
drugstores on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2.
In the past, drugstore owners selling fake drugs or medicines
without doctor's prescriptions received very lenient sentences,
many of them getting the benefit of probation and only small
fines being imposed.
Under Law No. 23/1992 on public health and Law No. 8/1999 on
consumer protection, drugstore owners who are found guilty are
liable to a maximum jail term of five years or a Rp 2 billion
fine.
Sampurno revealed that the BPOM and police had conducted a
series of raids over two days on illegal drugstores across the
country on Oct. 1 and 2.
He said that 202 drugstores had been found to have violated
their permits by selling prescription medicines, unregistered
medicines and fake medicines.
After a thorough study of the cases, he said, only 150 pf the
cases were sufficiently serious to be brought to court.
Administrative sanctions would be imposed on the remaining 52
drugstore owners.
Among the 150 drugstores to be prosecuted, 27 are located in
Surabaya, East Java; 13 in Jakarta; 12 in Palembang, South
Sumatra; nine in Jambi; and eight in Medan, North Sumatra.
In Jakarta, drugstores located on Jl. Pramuka and at the Rawa
Bening market in East Jakarta, the Glodok area of West Jakarta;
and the Pasar Rumput market in South Jakarta were caught selling
fake drugs and controlled drugs without prescriptions.
During the raids, officers seized 141 unregistered and
imported medicines, including two containing codeine, which is
still considered as narcotic under the Public Health Law.
The officers also seized faked medicines, including 250
milligram Ponstan tablets and 500 milligram Ponstan tablets in
Palembang, and the antiallergenic drug Incidal in Bandung, West
Java.
They also seized 815 samples of prescription medicines and 15
samples of psychotropic drugs from the stores.
Sampurno did not deny the possible involvement of
international links, including major companies and distributors,
in the illegal distribution of medicines in drugstores across the
country.
"So far we just arrested the players on the ground. We hope we
can find out how the masterminds are," he said, adding that the
BPOM and police were thoroughly investigating the medicine
distribution network.
He promised to revoke the licenses of any companies or
distributors found illegally supplying medicines to illegal
drugstores.