NAFDAC advocates death penalty for drug counterfeiters

The Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Paul Orhii, has declared that the agency wants death penalty for drug offenders and drug counterfeiters.Speaking at the official flag off of NAFDACs Anti-Counterfeiting Cutting Edge Technologies, at the Nicon Luxury, Abuja, Dr. Orhii said the agency had advocated for death penalty but for the civil society organisations who said death penalty had become absurd and barbaric the world over.The NAFDAC boss said in an effort to effectively combat drug counterfeiting, the agency had adopted different strategies which included reviewing NAFDAC laws to ensure policies are in place to serve as greater deterrent to offenders.The new draft seeks life time jail, confiscation of assets upon conviction and compensation for victims where the counterfeit product is found to be the proximate cause of injury as well as to make it a non-bailable offence, he said.Beside punitive measure for offenders, Dr. Orhii stated that NAFDAC would also sustain public enlightenment campaigns using print and electronic media, and embark on continuous training and re-training of officers to strengthen their regulatory capacity.He pointed out that drug counterfeiting was a major obstacle that prevented access to safe, quality and efficacious medicines and had become a global problem.Quoting the World Custom Service, the NAFDAC boss hinted that drug counterfeiting had become a $200 billion business annually.The recent global offensive against the illicit narcotic trade led by the USA and Mexico has resulted in drug barons increasingly directing their resources into the less risky and more lucrative drug counterfeiting business, creating international syndicates and making drug counterfeiting more global, sophisticated and militarised. The use of sophisticated printing technologies makes visual detection of counterfeits with the naked eye almost impossible, he declared.
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