Chandigarh: The Punjab Chemists Association on Sunday instructed its nearly 27,000 members across the state to halt sales of habit-forming prescription drugs, including Pregabalin, citing safety concerns amid govt raids.The association directed retailers to return current stocks to wholesalers and distributors by the end of the month.The move follows a state govt crackdown on illegal pharmaceutical sales after a pharmacy owner shot dead anti-drug activist Parminder Singh Jhota in Mansa on Oct 13. He has been arrested and is currently in CBI custody in Mohali.Retailers alleged that police and inspectors are targeting legitimate businesses over minor inventory discrepancies.“For mismatches as small as four tablets, genuine chemists are facing store closures,” association general secretary G S Chawla told TOI over phone. “No one is actually cracking down or raiding main culprits. Two to four per cent of black sheep are there in every profession. But after the Mansa incident, all chemists are being treated as culprits,” he said, adding there have been raids on genuine chemists in the last four to five days. “The govt’s anti-drug campaign has effectively turned into a war on chemists,” he said.Chawla urged the govt to distribute these controlled medications directly through civil hospitals and state-run Jan Aushadhi outlets.
About The Author
