16 Nigerians arrested for peddling fake drugs at Madina

The Food and Drugs Authority in collaboration with the Ghana Police Service and other stakeholders have arrested 16 fake drug peddlers along the Madina Zongo Junction stretch.

The sixteen, all Nigeriens, were arrested on Thursday night by the team for selling unregistered and unauthorized drugs to the public.

Mr James Lartey, Communications Director FDA, said the exercise was to clamp down on people who have taken to the streets of Accra selling unregistered drugs including Tramadol and unapproved aphrodisiacs among others, to the public.

He said the swoop forms part of a five-day workshop organised for members of the security agencies, the Judiciary, the media and the FDA.

Mr Lartey said Tramadol has become a worrying trend to the FDA in recent times because not only are the youth abusing the drug,but the wrong milligrams are being sold to the public hence the need to confiscate all such drugs.

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“Tramadol is a pain killer, which the FDA has approved the 50 and 100 milligrams. But we are reliably informed that people are selling the 200 milligrams on the market which is a danger to all.”

“These medicines that are selling have not been registered by the FDA and are not supposed to be sold on the market”.

Mr Lartey said the FDA has previously embarked on similar exercises and would continue to do so until they are sure that such products were out of the market and appealed to the public to be watchful of such products.

He said the culprits have been handed over to the police for the necessary action to be taken.