adminFreeman Razemba and Victor Maphosa
SMUGGLED prescription and prohibited drugs have taken Harare’s informal market by storm, exposing those who take them to a serious health threat.
The drugs, some prohibited while others are unlawfully dispensed without prescription, have flooded the market where they cost much less than prices charged by registered local pharmacies.
Some of the drugs being sold on the streets without prescription include: stromox, 4×4 super apetito, erythromycin, azithromycin combicult, brimal satchets, Broncleer, comblimodus, cotrimoxazole, diclofenac tablets, Depo provera, doxycycline, hydrochloride injection, Attesan, benzylpenicillin, diezpam and ampicilasodica.
The drugs are not tested by the medicines regulating authority and they are dispensed by illegal vendors who do not appreciate the dangers associated with them, or who are aware of such dangers, but turn a blind eye in a bid to make money.
Some drugs like sex enhancers are prohibited in the country because of their side effects which may cause heart failure or damage to kidneys.
The sex-enhancing drugs selling on the illegal market include blue diamond tablets, Viengray, Cobra, Pentra-50, Manforce and another inscribed “7 hours”.
Skin-lightening creams which include Betasol and Extra Clere are also bought on streets.
Politicians, businesspeople, lawyers, and celebrities (names withheld) are some of the chief clients for sex enhancers and they usually frequent Five Avenue Shopping Centre where the drugs are openly sold outside the shops.
Some of the drugs have since been banned by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) because of their hazardous effects, but they find themselves illegally on the market.
MCAZ spokesperson Mr Richard Rukwata said sex enhancers and other prohibited drugs were hazardous to health.
“People should know that these sex-enhancing drugs are dangerous and can cause irreversible damage to their kidneys,” he said.
“The victims end up in a terrible condition where they require regular dialysis services for the rest of their lives. We advise men who suffer erectile problems to see urologists for help than abusing the banned drugs. They should always keep fit by exercising regularly. After taking the enhancers, some may suffer heart failure.”
Drugs, including sex enhancers, cough syrup such as Broncleer (popularly known as Bronco), mental health tablets and skin lighteners are being dispensed on the streets without any prescription.
Abuse of such drugs is now rampant and investigations have established that the medicines are smuggled from Zambia and South Africa using haulage trucks and unscrupulous bus drivers through Beitbridge and Chirundu border posts.
Some dealers are now using boats to smuggle the drugs from Zambia across the Zambezi River.
Women are said to be the major culprits in the smuggling syndicates.
Drugs from the borders are offloaded at service stations along Simon Mazorodze Road in Harare, where the drivers are paid for the dirty work.
Consignments will then be taken for resale to various known “bases” at Copacabana market in the central business district, Five Avenue shops, Mbare, Highfield, Mabvuku, Kambuzuma, Glen View, Mufakose, Budiriro and Warren Park among other high-density suburbs.
A survey conducted by The Herald recently in and around the city revealed that such activities were rampant and the peddlers normally sold the drugs to their friends and regular clients for fear of being arrested.
When The Herald visited Mupedzanhamo market in Mbare, most illegal vendors were selling pharmaceutical drugs believed to have been smuggled into the country.
They were selling skin-lightening creams such as Epidermy cream, sex enhancement tablets, apetito tablets, which are in three regimens that are Super Apetito, Power Apetito and General Apetito, erythromycin and azithromycin, among other pharmaceutical drugs.
At Fife Avenue Shopping Centre, vendors rush to accost shoppers, while advertising the illegal drugs, mainly sex enhancers.
A pack of four popular tablets known as blue diamond is selling for $20, while another called Viengray costs between $18 and $20, also for a pack of four.
A single tablet of drugs known as Pentra-50 and Cobra costs $18, while another one inscribed “7 hours” costs $16 each.
The vendors also sell a tablet called Manforce for $17.
Skin-lightening creams which included Betasol and Extra Clere are sold for $15.
A vendor, who only identified herself as Juliet, narrated how she gets the prohibited drugs.
“We buy these drugs from our ‘suppliers’ who smuggle them from South Africa and Zambia,” she said.
“We then sell them at fair prices to our local customers.”
A vendor at Five Avenue shops known as Tatenda said he had a number of high-profile customers in Harare and at times he delivers the drugs at their offices in the city.
“I have a number of clients, including top lawyers, top police officers, businessmen and politicians who have been buying enhancers here for years,” he said.
“They cannot do without my stuff. At one point I was arrested for illegal vending and a number of lawyers offered to represent me for free in court. I had to choose one (name supplied).”
A woman, who preferred anonymity, said she was making a living through selling such drugs at Copacabana.
She said her suppliers smuggle the drugs from Zambia through undesignated entry points using boats along the Zambezi River.
“We used to smuggle the drugs and creams through Chirundu Border Post, but now it is hard to do that, now we take them through Zambezi River using boats,” she said. “There are people ready to do that for us.
“We don’t have any challenges transporting our ‘stuff’ from the border to Harare because no searches are conducted throughout the journey.”
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said operations to eliminate drug peddling were underway countrywide.
“Over the last two weeks we made arrests and recoveries,” he said.
“Investigations have also proved that some of these activities are coordinated from houses and offices and the so-called vuzu parties, while others at bus terminuses and shopping centres. We have since stepped up our patrols and surveillance targeting such activities.”
Asst Comm Nyathi warned members of the public to desist from such activities as they risk being arrested and prosecuted once caught.
Recently, police in Nyamapanda arrested Maidei Nyamande (35) for smuggling two bales of second-hand clothes and pharmaceutical drugs from Mozambique.
Online Reporter