Chandigarh: The Punjab Chemists Association on Sunday asked its member chemists across the state to stop selling pharmaceutical drugs such as Pregabalin and other habit-forming prescription drugs.The decision was taken following a series of raids at various places in the state in a crackdown on the illegal sale of pharma drugs in the aftermath of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota’s alleged murder by chemist Ashwani Kumar in Mansa on Oct 13.The association asked chemists to return the existing stocks to wholesalers and distributors and is hopeful the exercise will be complete by the month-end.“No one is actually cracking down on main culprits. They are not being raided. Two to four per cent of black sheep are there in every profession. But after the Mansa incident, all chemists are being treated as culprits,” G S Chawla, general secretary of the Punjab Chemists Association, said.“For mismatches as small as four tablets to one strip, the genuine chemists are at the receiving end of the crackdown, staring at getting their medical stores sealed. We decided to stop selling Pregabalin and other such drugs in a meeting on Wednesday and are waiting to see how things move. In the last four or five days, genuine chemists have also faced intense raids. So today, we asked the chemists to stop selling such drugs,” he said.“Govt’s ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ has in fact become ‘Yudh Chemists Virudh’,” Chawla added.He said the association appealed to govt to provide such drugs to the patients at its govt facilities, Jan Aushadhi kendras and civil hospitals.He said nearly all 27,000 chemists linked to the association were asked not to sell such drugs and to return existing stocks to the wholesaler and distributor. “We are hopeful that the stocks will be returned by chemists across the state,” Chawla added.He said the move aimed at the “safety” of the member chemists.
