Five Pharmacies Caught Supplying Preparations To Illicit Market

SHAH ALAM, April 21 (Bernama) -- Five pharmacies in Malaysia were found supplying preparations containing pseudoephedrine, commonly used in cold syrup, to the illicit market between 2005 and March this year, a United Nations official said.
Wong Hoy Yuen, the Malaysian project coordinator for precursor control in East Asia for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the pharmacies were subsequently prohibited from further buying the preparations.
He said the government had also taken other preventive measures such as limiting the number of wholesalers dealing in the preparations and requiring approval for the export of the preparations as well as pre-export notification (PEN).
Through the PEN, Malaysia was also able to detect any import of precursors or intermediate compounds for the illicit market, he said.
Malaysia currently receives the PEN from many countries and 1,541 notifications were received in 2005 while 762 were issued.
From the total PEN received, 17 notifications for imports were not allowed because the importers either had no valid licence or permit, had denied ordering the precursor or did not exist.
Wong said this to reporters after the signing of a partnership agreement between the government, five local chemical companies and UNODC to train employees in the industry to help stop illicit manufacture of drugs of abuse.
The agreement was signed by Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Wong and representatives of the chemical companies.
Under the agreement, UNODC will provide a DVD to train employees in the industry to understand the importance of precursor control and what they can do to help the government curb diversions of precursors for illicit use.
The DVD was produced by UNODC in nine languages for distribution in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines and Cambodia.
Wong said cooperation between the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and the government was vital to prevent the diversion of precursors and chemicals that could be used to produce drugs such as ecstasy, syabu and amphetamine type of stimulants.
"Diversion of precursors from the licit trade is a global problem and Malaysia has also seen diversion of it since years ago," he said.
He said the government would not know about the diversion unless it was notified by the industries.
"So the industries would have to be a lot more socially responsible in preventing the diversion," he added.