Punishment for drug adulteration in Nigeria will state the implications of the manufacturing and distribution of adulterated drugs.

How to prevent drug adulteration

This article will highlight all the legal implications of the manufacturing and distribution of adulterated drugs.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has over the years worked at eradicating the production and distribution of adulterated drugs in Nigeria.

Drug adulteration is altering the active ingredients or fillers of medicines and tablets in such a way that it is just a mock-up of the original thing and consumers cannot tell the difference.

Pharmaceutical companies have come up with an SMS code written on the packets of their products to help consumers confirm the authenticity of their drugs before they begin to consume them.

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However, this has not put an end to or eliminated drug adulteration in the country. So many people for sheer selfish benefits and monetary gains go headlong into this illegal business at the expense of the lives and wellbeing of the people.

This is the reason why NAFDAC raids medicine shops, pharmacies, and drug dispensaries across the country once in a while to confiscate and destroy fake drugs while punishing the people who produce or sell these items appropriately.

Drug adulteration not only poses a public health hazard to the masses, but it can also lead to poisoning of human cells and untimely death.

For this reason, it is advisable to purchase medicines from authorized sellers and not hawkers and itinerant drug sellers we see on buses who speak so persuasively that they could make priests and monks buy condoms. Take all the precautionary measures to keep safe because as they say, “health is indeed wealth.”

Punishment for Drug Adulteration in Nigeria

Anyone who adulterates any drug or medical preparation in such a manner as to lessen the efficacy or change the operation of such drug or medical preparation, or to make it noxious, intending that it shall be sold or used for, or knowing it to be likely that it will be sold or used for, any medical purpose as if it had not undergone such adulteration; or
knowing any drug or medical preparation to have been adulterated in such a manner as to lessen its efficacy, to change its operation, or to render it noxious, sells the same, or offers or exposes it for sale, or issues it from any dispensary for medical purposes as unadulterated, or causes it to be used for medical purposes by any person not knowing of the adulteration; or
knowingly sells, or offers or exposes for sale, or issues from a dispensary for medical purposes, any drug or medical preparation, as a different drug or medical preparation.

Shall be punishable with death, or with imprisonment for life, or with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to fourteen years, and shall also be liable to fine.