Buying cough syrup? Get doctor’s prescription

To check the misuse of drugs as intoxicants, medical practitioners will soon have to write three copies of prescription – one each for the doctor, the drug store and the patient.

To check the misuse of drugs as intoxicants, medical practitioners will soon have to write three copies of prescription – one each for the doctor, the drug store and the patient. This declaration was made by the minister of state for food and drugs Satej Patil in the legislative assembly on Thursday.

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Patil said that the acts that govern food and drugs business in the state would be amended. Congress legislator Amin Patel raised a calling attention notice in the Assembly in this regard. To prove that high potency sedatives, cough syrups and drugs were being sold without doctor’s prescription, Patel produced a bag of drugs such as Corex, Phensedyl, Restyl and Spa SMO Proxyuon in the Assembly.

“Owing to the easy availability of these drugs, youth and schoolchildren have become addicted to it,” said Patel. He claimed that an ayurvedic mixture Minar was being sold at paan shops. “People buy Minar to get a high. We need to ban the illegal sale of such products.”

Patil assured that all such drugs would be included in the list of scheduled drugs that cannot be sold without doctor’s prescription. “The doctors will write prescriptions in triplicates. One copy will be with the doctor, one in the drug store and the other with the patient,” said Patil.

Patil and Patel will also hold a meeting with pharmaceutical companies to create awareness about the abuse of drugs.