The House of Representatives on Tuesday, passed for second reading an amendment bill proposing a N2million fine and a two – year imprison term for guilty parties of the prohibition on Tramadol and Codeine. The bill which tries to revise the Food, Drugs and Related Products (Registration, and so on) Act, 2004, looks to survey the punishments that can be imposed on guilty parties and give jurisdiction on state high courts to try offenses under the Act.
The sponsor of the amendment, Hon Betty Apiafi (PDP, Rivers) in her lead debate, said that between January and December 2015, an estimated 1, 044 patients were admitted for treatment in the 11 treatment centers that currently form part of the e-Nigeria Epidemiological Network of Drug Use ( NENDU) reporting system. She stated that “28.3 percent of the patients had an opiate addiction and the opiates were mainly prescription medicines. She said, “Tramadol represented 71 percent as first most frequently used substance, Codeine (15.1 percent) and Pentazocine (9.9 percent), while heroin and morphine represented only 3.3 percent of opiates.
“Since 2015, Codeine has nearly overtaken Tramadol as the most abused opiate in Nigeria. Thousands of young people in Nigeria are addicted to Codeine cough syrup, a medicine that has become a street drug. Three million bottles are drunk every day in Nigeria’s North alone, according to a recent government report..” She also stated that the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated in 2011, that 64 percent of antimalarial drugs in the country were found to be counterfeit, adding that “it is assessed that counterfeit drugs provided approximately $75 billion in revenue annually to illegal operators and have caused more than 150,000 deaths worldwide. “We legislators must also do our part in this war against the commercialization of illegal unregistered food and drugs.” According to the lawmaker, Sections 6, 7, 9 and 13 of the Principal Act were amended in the new bill, declaring that the extant law enacted 25 years ago and had never been amended. The amendments to the bill stipulate penalties for individuals up to the tune of N500,000 or a prison term of two years or both; and in the case of a corporate body, all the directors, managers. partners, trustees, would be guilty of an offense and would be punished as if they had committed the offense themselves. The amendment bill was thereafter referred to the House committee on Healthcare Services for further legislative action.
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