Roadside drug stalls offer affordable, cheap medicines

JAKARTA (JP): If you believe drugs are just too expensive and your doctors are quacks anyway, go to Jakarta's "drug markets". The prices may amaze you.

Roadside medicine stalls are ubiquitous in the markets of Tanah Abang and Jatinegara as well as in modern business districts like Senen and Glodok.

Their customers are mostly poor people who find prescription medicines in drugstores too expensive.

In these places, people find an array of drugs ranging from pain killers, antibiotics, and condoms to curious traditional herbs said to enhance your libido.

To attract customers, many shopkeepers become experts on every disease and health problem brought to them, and offer medical advice free of charge.

Some medicine traders say that they sell over-the-counter drugs 20 to 30 percent cheaper than pharmacies.

Siahaan, an owner of such a shop in Pramuka market, says people who cannot afford to buy medicines at drugstores buy "expensive" drugs like antibiotics cheaply there.

"You can get antibiotics for two or three times less than at pharmacies," Siahaan says.

Some medicines cost tens of thousands of rupiahs at drugstores but can be procured for only a few thousand rupiah if you know where to go.

Jupri, who has a stall in Glodok, says that he buys medicines from a major pharmaceutical distributor so that he can sell them cheap.

"We get special discounts from the distributor," he says. He says he has only one employee, to keep overheads to a minimum.

Siahaan said that "Many people come for advice before they decide to buy the proper drugs. People with venereal disease are usually too ashamed to discuss it with their doctor so they come here for a consultation and then buy the medicine they need here."

Siahaan, who has been doing business for seven years, is proud to tell his customers he knows the ingredients and uses of more than 1,000 branded drugs.

The "Medicine men" insist they don't sell expired drugs as some people say they do. They say that expired medicines are returned to their producers.

Some drug stalls in Senen and Glodok eager for big, easy profit secretly sell cheap barbiturate pills, such as Nipam, and BK.

Police often find barbiturates in raids. A trader who has been held in Central Jakarta police custody for selling the pills, says he makes a lot of money from these "uppers".

Illicit drugs are usually sold at mobile stalls, which can be moved when the owners hear the police is about to raid them. (jun)