The Drugs Control Department carried out raids in the district on Friday following complaints that medical stores were selling narcotic products in the vicinity of schools and colleges.
A team led by Regional Drugs Inspector Subash Menon and Drugs Intelligence Inspector Shaji Varghese raided 25 medical shops in the district.
Many shops had no proper records and at least four had no purchase records. Serious discrepancies in stock and sales figures had been noticed in 16 shops. Show cause notices would be issued to them, Mr. Varghese told The Hindu .
The raids were part of the recently launched ‘Clean campus - save campus’ drive of the Home and Education Departments. Checks were carried out at 300 medical shops in the State to look at the misuse of prescription drugs by medical stores and its sales to school and college students, he said.
“We wanted to verify whether the medical stores sold the drugs for genuine use. Rampant complaints have come from various quarters about medical stores illegally selling synergy and neuroleptic drugs,” Mr. Varghese said.
The Corex syrup having codeine content was popular among the student community. The syrup which had a morphine analogy, created a hallucinatory effect. A 100-ml bottle came at Rs.60, he said.
Similarly, Nitrazepam prescribed for treating insomnia was unlawfully sold to students. These were code named ‘button.’
Another ‘codenamed’ product was the blue-coloured capsule, Spasmo-Proxyvon, known as ‘SP’ among student circles. But this pain killer had been banned by the Government of India, he said. Medical stores had found a way to market Pregabalin, an anticonvulsant drug used for neuropathic pain, a rage among the students. The special drive would continue. Departmental action, including warning and suspension and cancellation of licences would be taken against offenders, he said.
