Headache after bad advice

FORMER Health Minister, Dr Hamza Rafeeq, yesterday claimed that Health Minister John Rahael received bad advice on the Food and Drugs Amendment Bill 2004 and the legislation cannot go  any further in its present form. The Bill was laid and passed in the House of Representatives on Friday but has since caused “headaches” throughout the population, with people wondering why a doctor’s prescription would now be required to buy common over-the-counter drugs, such as Comtrex, Sudafed and Tylenol. Rafeeq, a doctor who owns a pharmacy in Freeport,  said the Bill “creates confusion”.                   

The drug pseudoephredrine, which is contained in many over the counter drugs, is now to be placed under control. But Rahael had failed to explain that the quantity of  pseudoephredrine found in many household tablets and syrups is what determines whether the item should be dispensed by prescription or sold over the counter. On Friday during the parliamentary debate, Rafeeq pointed out that the Bill as presented by Rahael would mean items such as  Sudafed, Comtrex, and Tylenol  would now require a doctor’s prescription and would cause hardship particularly to poor people who would have to go to the doctor for a prescription for a simple headache. Dr Rafeeq pointed out to Rahael that the Bill would require amendments because it was not feasible.

Being put onto the Third Schedule of the Food and Drug Act,  explained Rafeeq, meant that drugs such as pseudoephridine cannot be purchased over-the-counter at any pharmacy without a doctor’s prescription. Rafeeq said people thus would try to fight the common cold without medication due to the added cost of having to visit a doctor first, there would be an increase in drug prices and also additional work for pharmacists who would now have to  keep records of all prescriptions. Rafeeq said he suggested to Rahael after Friday’s session of Parliament that the compositions of the various drugs be examined and clear precursor limits be defined within the legislation. According to Rafeeq, this means drugs containing chemicals which exceed those limits would require prescriptions while drugs below the limits (such as Comtrex, Sudafed and Tylenol) could still be purchased without a prescription.

Rafeeq said once this was done the Bill would be workable and he received an assurance from Rahael that deficiencies in the Bill would be amended before it goes to the Senate for debate. Contacted yesterday, Rahael told Sunday Newsday he was misunderstood in Parliament by the Opposition. He said  that the Bill’s passage on Friday will not affect the purchase of all over-the counter drugs in Trinidad and Tobago and the population has “nothing to fear”. The Minister said all such drugs which do not require a prescription as prerequisite for purchase, can still be bought in this way. He said the Health Ministry’s Food and Drug Division monitored all pharmaceutical drugs coming into the country and would determine which drugs required a prescription and which did not. While Rafeeq had noted that the Division “can only advise within the law”, Rahael gave the assurance that Government would correct any flaws in the Bill before it goes to the Senate.  “We will do it,” he declared.

Meanwhile yesterday President of the Pharmacy Board Wazir Hosein said that he needed to see its contents first, before making a comment on the Bill. Pharmacist at Bhagan’s Drug Store, Arima, Sally Lacki, said that such common cold medications containing pseudoephe-drine were known to have serious side effects on patients with hypertension and heart disease. “These drugs can increase heart rate and increase blood pressure and are harmful to hypertensive patients,” said Lacki. She said the real issue that government should be addressing is the easy access to such over-the-counter medicine which is detrimental to the unsuspecting consumer. “You can go to almost any grocery or cosmetic place and get these drugs and there is no one to advise the patient who may have an allergy or obtain some harmful side effects from them,” Lacki added.