Drug smuggling needs attention [Archives:2002/19/Focus]

MOHAMMED AL-MASSANI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
Smuggling medicine into Yemen is a real heath threat. For years now smuggling has not been severely dealt with by the government, despite its fatal consequences on our population.
Many donor countries as well as international organizations extensively support the health sector in Yemen. Yet, Yemen s government does not make full use of this assistance. For the most part, the heath sector in Yemen is in very bad condition and needs to be reformed.
Smuggling of drugs constitute a real threat to the people. The efforts exerted by the ministry of heath, to crackdown on smuggling, during the term of office of Dr. Abdullah Abdulwali Nashir, former minister of heath, are praiseworthy.
We indeed hope that the current minister of health will follow up that steps in order to curb this criminal phenomenon.
If no concrete steps are taken by the concerned bodies dealing with smuggling a whole population is prone to disaster by these poisons.
The high number of cancer patients in Yemen is alarmingly high and one could not rule out that expired and unsupervised medicines smuggled into Yemen are the main reason for that.
This is a national disaster that should be tackled promptly. We hope that the government will have ears to listen.

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