Chijioke Iremeka
The Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Professor Adewale Oke, has raised concerns over patients’ addiction to post-surgery painkillers and accused medical personnel who administer the drugs of also being culpable.
Recall that the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye promised to end the diversion of narcotics meant for medical and scientific purposes at the launch of the International Narcotics Control Board Annual Report Availability Supplement and Precursor Report 2023, in Lagos.
Adeyeye said narcotics and psychotropic substances are indispensable in the management of pain and other medical conditions, saying that due to their addictive potential, there is a need to balance control and access to them.
She explained that the INCB, reports on the world drug situation annually to governments of countries that are party to the International Conventions on Drug Control efforts.
Speaking further on this, Oke said surgeons and other medical professionals involved in surgery have the tendency to get addicted to narcotics used as post-operative painkillers for patients.
Represented by Olatunji Aina, a professor of psychiatry at the College of Medicine, he described the development as a big public health challenge that only collaboration with NAFDAC and NDLEA could nip in the bud.
On the medical conditions that require this class of drugs, Oke explained that they can be administered during sickle cell crisis, orthopaedic cases, particularly fractures and in the management of cancer.
He, however, said physicians face a dilemma when patients become addicted, stressing that it is important to know when analgesics are no longer required and addiction has set in.
The don noted that sometimes when a physician thinks a clinical situation has improved and would not warrant further use of analgesics, a patient would still make demands.
“I’m happy about the control of these medicines by NAFDAC because it’s one of the most common problems we have in psychiatry, particularly in patients that are addicted to the controlled medicines and injections,” he added.
Also, the Director of Laboratory Services (Food), NAFDAC, Dr Charles Nwachukwu stressed that Competent National Authorities must scale up their activities, and monitor online advertisements and sales of controlled substances to stay ahead of traffickers.
She said NAFDAC had already put measures in place to ensure availability and prevent the diversion of controlled medicines to illegal use.
Nwachukwu listed some of the measures to include E-permit issuance to import controlled substances since 2017, Export Notification Online System, monitoring the integrity of the distribution chain, National Drug Control Master Plan, and National Pharmaceutical Traceability among others.
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