'Beware new date-rape drops'
2002-05-24 08:58
Johannesburg - Teenagers are being warned never to buy eye drops from strangers at nightclubs as criminals are suspected of filling the bottles with a diluted, highly dangerous schedule 7 drug, which can be used in date rape.
The Gauteng Action Group for Medicine Crimes issued the warning at a meeting here on Thursday.
A Medicines Control Council (MCC) representative confirmed that a powerful medication used by veterinarians to anaesthetise animals might be in use as a drug.
The MCC, the Pharmaceutical Council, police, drug companies and others have been meeting on a regular basis in the past year to try to find solutions and curb medicine theft and forgeries and the importation of unregistered products.
The MCC also discovered that body builders were using steroids meant for horses to define their own muscles.
The council's inspectorate seized a consignment of these products from Australia, valued at R600 000, at Johannesburg International Airport three weeks ago.
More cases in South Africa
The products are said to cause sterility in women and have other dangerous side effects as they are unfit for human consumption.
The MCC is joining forces with the South African Revenue Services to curb the trade in illegal medicines. After a recent visit to South Africa, British medicine-control authorities suggested the council appoint more personnel to do its work.
In London, inspectors probe three cases a year, while South African inspectors are burdened with up to 30 cases a month.
It is suspected that 90% of all medicine thefts are perpetrated by syndicates. Generally, only the runners are caught, and they refuse to disclose any information as the syndicates support them and pay their bail.
The MCC is told of medicine delivery trucks being hijacked on an almost weekly basis and in only two cases in Gauteng this month more than R2.6 million worth of medicine was stolen.
The action group tried to find solutions on Thursday for the MCC's serious space shortage for storing which had been confiscated and needed to be kept as evidence in court.
Neither the police, drug companies, health department nor the MCC financial department have been able to provide storage space. Drug companies, however, have offered to pay for storage containers.
The possibility of marking medicine with microchips instead of bar codes was proposed on Thursday. Devices able to "read" the chips would be able to "follow" a medicine package from the manufacturer to the pharmacy shelves. This could help manufacturers to identify stolen goods.
This sort of technology is not in use yet anywhere in the world and companies will have to determine whether medicine crimes warrant the expense.