Rahael agrees to have second look at amendment

Health Minister John Rahael yesterday said an error could have been made in the proposed amendment to the Food and Drug Act. If enacted in its current form, members of the public may have to obtain prescriptions for many common over-the-counter (OTC) medications. Although he said “nothing has changed” and OTC medication can still be bought without a prescription, Rahael added that, if necessary, another amendment would be made to clarify the issue. He told Newsday the Food and Drugs Division (FDD) of the Ministry of Health would have made the recommendations for the amendment. “If they erred, we would have to correct that.”

He said the aim of the legislation was to “track” large quantities of certain drugs imported into the country, which can be diverted for illegal use.  The proposed amendment to the Third Schedule of the Act is intended to provide controls on the distribution of certain chemical substances used in the manufacture of illicit drugs. Drugs now covered by the Third Schedule require prescriptions and the amendment has added Ephedrine, N-Methyl ephedrine, N-Methyl pseudoephedrine, Norpseudoephedrine, Phenylpropanolamine and Pseudoephedrine. The salts, optical isomers and salts of optical isomers of each of these drugs are also included.

At last Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives, former health minister Dr Hamza Rafeeq said the inclusion of pseudoephedrine would result in people having to get prescriptions for common drugs like Comtrex, Tylenol Cold and Sudafed. These contain small amounts of pseudoephedrine. Rahael said Dr Rafeeq’s concerns were valid and the FDD was looking at the amendment again. He said Dr Rafeeq had recommended that a minimum dosage be included in the proposal. “We did not identify a minimum dosage,” he said.

Rahael said discussions would have to take place with the FDD and Pharmacy Board. Meanwhile, pharmacists have reported that some consumers were taking the issue lightly. At Eastern Main Road in Sangre Grande, members of the public were “kicksing” about requiring a prescription for OTC drugs. “People can’t believe the Government could do something like that,” the pharmacist said. He said most OTCs contain minute quantities (milligrammes) of the drugs. He highlighted the need for the schedule of OTCs to be updated since many new drugs and drug classifications have been introduced to the market.