To combat medication hawking and artificial fruit ripening, NAFDAC is looking to partner with the media.

Yesterday, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) urged media collaboration to deter unlicensed individuals from peddling pharmaceuticals in the open market.

The agency’s advocacy also intended to put a halt to the calcium carbide-induced artificial ripening of fruits, stating that such methods are harmful to human health.

At the South East media sensitization workshop on “Dangers of Drug Hawking and Ripening of Fruits With Calcium Carbide” in Awka, Anambra State, Prof. Moji Christiana Adeyeye, Director General of NAFDAC, further cautioned the people to cease supporting drug hawkers.

She stated that numerous national newspapers and non-governmental organizations have expressed alarm about the impending danger and health implications of these two evil acts by some unpatriotic and dishonest persons, adding that NAFDAC will do everything in its power to put a stop to them.

She said that the agency has taken some significant actions since 2019 like educating the public through various media means, enforcing the law through intelligence, and conducting raids in fruit markets that resulted in the seizure and destruction of goods that did not meet the requirement.

Adeyeye claimed that NAFDAC has observed the illegal drug peddlers operating in the open market as well as the risky practice of selling and consuming fruits that have been chemically ripened.

The main goal of the workshop, she continued, was to increase media awareness of the negative health effects of buying drugs from street vendors and eating fruits that have been treated with calcium carbide.

“I want to reassure you that NAFDAC will continue to work with the media as we work to educate the general public about the benefits of our regulatory efforts.

“The threat of drug hawking poses a significant challenge to the nation’s healthcare delivery system, underscoring NAFDAC’s resolve to completely abolish the illicit trade.

Many drug sellers are “knowingly or unknowingly merchants of death,” putting people’s lives in jeopardy by exposing life-saving medications to the whims of bad weather, which turns the medicines’ active ingredients into poisons.