Banned Drugs- Available for Consumption without Prescription in India

WHO Banned Drugs Marketed in India

Recently a news item referring to ‘WHO Banned Drugs’ attracted my attention, some of these drugs are easily available in Indian Markets. These drugs are banned by WHO because they have side effects which pose serious threat to healthy condition of the body.

Even then these drugs are not only openly available in the Indian Market without prescription of a medical practitioner but most of them are advertised on popular TV channels as an easy solution to common household health problems.

In India there is a tendency to take drugs on self prescription, here normally people avoid seeing a doctor for common health problems. Usually one visits doctor only when this self-prescription fails to yield results and condition of health deteriorates even further. This is a common scene in cities and urban area of the country. We can think of villages and rural areas where medical facilities like doctor, clinics and hospitals are rare and most people there are living next to poverty line.

Self prescription is actually a part of ‘Indian Ayurvedic Culture’, a part of Indian Philosophy. People here have been practicing self prescription for years not only for common health problems but even for serious health conditions. Initially starting with spices and herbs available in home and if condition doesn’t improve, there are many other recommendations to follow. Most of these so called ‘home remedies’ are known to be effective for centuries but today when lifestyle has changed from ‘Indian’ to modern and environment has changed from ‘natural’ to polluted, it is very difficult if not impossible to get the same results today. 

Today we can’t think of pure and pollutant free air, water and food in most part of India, then how can we take it for granted that herbs still hold the same quality.

In the above circumstances and traditional Indian mentality it becomes more important to remove such drugs from the market which are good for nothing and can lead to a more serious health problem. Some of these commonly available banned drugs are alalgin, phemylpropanolamine to name. These are already well known for there effectiveness in common health problems to almost everyone who watches TV and those who get easily influenced by advertisements, take them off counters without thinking twice.

The fact that some banned drugs are in market is in knowledge of many including authorities but still they aren’t able to remove them from the market. These banned drugs are banned by WHO and many other countries with India as an exception.

 

Now to take this matter even further we can talk about drugs which are banned in India and are still available in Indian Markets and you’ll be delighted to know that some doctors still prescribe them. Actually these doctors aren’t aware of recent developments in medical science and prescribe such drugs due to lack of knowledge.

 

All this has resulted in India becoming a dumping ground for banned drugs. Hope things will change soon and banned drugs in India will not be available for consumption with or without prescription (although I can still see some of these banned drugs being advertised in some of the channels in India in 2012).