Unqualified Pharmacists, Smuggled and Expired Drugs in Yemen’s Markets [Archives:2000/36/Reportage]

Jalal Al-Sharaabi
Yemen Times
Many drugstores open illegally posing real threats to people’s health in many ways. Despite the high orders to close some of those drugstores, they are still working without being supervised.
The Yemen Times published in the previous issue a number of interviews with pharmacists and drugstores’ owners who said that they had been blackmailed from time to time by taxes and municipality authorities. They, furthermore, pointed out a number of drugstores owned by influential people that nobody dare accuse of being illegal.
It is a real catastrophe to feel that investment can involve any field even at the expense of people’s health. Many powerful traders buy licenses from fresh graduates for millions to run drugstores.
This total carelessness is not in fact the responsibility of one authority. All land and sea approaches to Yemen are easy to penetrate by a series of smuggling operations.
Statistics show that billions of riyals have been lost due to smuggling in general and smuggling of drugs in particular. Smuggled drugs do not only affect the national economy or the local market but above all they endanger people’s health.
A field survey by the Health Office of the Capital Secretariat indicated that a number of drugstores and other health centers were working without licenses. Many health installations trade with free drugs, smuggled drugs, use expired substances and employ unqualified staff. Out of 1079 installations included in the survey, 622 were violating the law. In addition, 214 out of 286 clinics and 211 out of 434 drugstores were being illegally run.
Law no. 60 for 1999 specified a number of conditions to run clinics, drugstores. However, many hospitals, clinics and drugstores are run in violation to that law.
The Yemen Times moved to the health office in the secretariat capital and met its director and a number of officials to collect more information.


The health survey carried out by our health office was a continuation of a previous survey conducted in 1998, said Mohammed M. Hajar, director. Ministries of Labor and Interior had also been involved. The main aim of the survey was to evaluate the current situation of health installations and what has been added during the last year. During the last three weeks we seized big quantities of smuggled drugs, said director. He added that they had already summoned all violators. He further described smuggled drugs as poisons, adding that smuggling does not necessarily indicate a shortcoming in the Ministry of Health. There should be joint efforts to fight smuggling, he said. He further called for forming a supreme council for fighting smuggling and appealed to people to report any violations they might detect encounter.
About the alleged illegal fees collected by the office he said: “No budget was allocated for the survey. We fined those violators to warn them against such behaviors and to provide expenditure for committees participating in the survey.”
Dr. Moqbil Nasser Al-Dhobiani, director of services and survey reporter highlighted a number of violations practiced by physicians and pharmacists. “For example, some general doctors write on wide boards that they are specialists. Some doctors sell free drug samples to drugstores and others make deals with drug companies to market their drugs regardless of their kind and quality.
In addition: about 75% of the drugstores available in Sana’a are run by traders who buy licenses from pharmacists,” he said.
He added that 18 surgery clinics were not licensed, 35 installations had not finalized procedures of getting licenses, 21 installations practiced activities where they were not permitted, 28 had not renewed licenses, 36 drugstores sold free drugs, 120 drugstores contained smuggled drugs, 24 drugstores sold doctors free samples, 149 health installations employed unqualified staff and other 69 installations were not matched to technical standards.
On the other hand, he stressed the importance of establishing a health prosecution to follow up all violations and investigate in them. ” We have been able, in coordination with deputy of the West Capital Prosecution, Judge Hadi Aidhah, to put an end to all violations in his area. He closes down all violating installations and never opens then unless everything is set right,” he said.
At the end he urged people not to deal with smuggled drugs that have become easy to recognize. “If the price printed on drugs is in a different currency, it means that they are smuggled,” he added.
Smuggled drugs are still flowing into Yemeni markets in big quantities. Last Wednesday about three thousand smuggled medicine bottles were burnt. Weekly surveys portend a catastrophe unless laws are strictly implemented. Health resources told the Yemen Times that some influential figures refused to abide by laws and are still trading with anything and everything even at the expense of our lives.



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