Our Reach is Far and Wide

If the particular shop is situated far from the main towns and it's dealing with scheduled medicine, we will hunt them down diligently. It doesn't mean that all the 12 of us is not enough to go around the state. Even if we are overwhelmed with the task at hand, we always have the public to work and cooperate with us. The case above involve a grocery shop in Membakut. It is the same old story of possession for sale of scheduled medicine. Mind you the shop had Dexamethasone (a steroid) and Sulfanilamide (an antibiotic) in stock. Wonder how many Ben Johnson's (no offence there Ben...) and super bugs that they have produced in Membakut....

Selling of Medicine Without Prescription

In Malaysia it is an offence to sell controlled medicine (CM) without a valid prescription. This applies to Group B CM (e.g. anti hypertensives, antibiotics etc.) even for a Pharmacy or from the dispensary counter at a medical clinic without direct consultation from a registered medical practitioner. Such act not only exposes the buyer to health risk but has a wider bigger impact to the general population like antibiotic resistance. As reported in a newspaper, an accused found out the hard way...

We do The Talking via Our Action

One thing for sure is, we don't utilise the press that much. Unlike other enforcement agency in this country we seldom hold press release of seizure and operation success as such. We seldom see articles in the press publicising our operations. It is not too much to state that Pharmacy Enforcement is an underrated enforcement entity especially here in Sabah. This is not helped by our small contingent of 12 hardworking officers. However we don't benchmark ourselves with the other enforcement agencies. Compare to the their workforce, logistics and facilities we are no way near their strengths. However press coverage on our enforcement activity can only be seen at the end stage which is the reports on court cases. For this a big thank you to the diligent reporters based at the courts.

All in all we prefer to do the talking on our own term even though lambasted and criticised by some quarters who don't have all the facts on our background and activities. These are the same people who claim that we are not doing enough. We don't owe anyone an explanation because we do all the work from behind the scene...

The case above involved a Kota Kinabalu based medical practitioner in possession of unregistered psychotropic medicine. In the same court a sundry shop proprietor in Kota Marudu was fined for possession of controlled medicine without authorization.

Our Campaign in the West Coast

This is the West Coast district. Our consumer education campaign here started back in 2003 targeting business wholesaler and retailers. In 2004, we shifted our target group to the general consumers or should we say the plain Joe and Jane of the community. With our Regional Headquarters situated in Kota Kinabalu City and the towns being within reach of the office, it is only natural that these neighbouring towns should be eradicated from unregistered products. Although we can't claim that we manage to achieve 100% eradication but it is not too much to state that most licensed premises in this locality don't sell unregistered product openly.

The lady owner seems happy and she's very cooperative even though her unregistered medicine was seized

A Tamparuli grocery store that we inspected, look at the colonial-era wooden shop house design.. difficult to find such shop in the city..

The eye said it all... this Indian national according to the travel documents issued to him is allowed to work as a Restaurant helper... instead he became a medicine peddler in a makeshift stall in Ranau... go figure

These are the unregistered product containing schedule poison that he was peddling. Clariderm Astringent and RDL Tretinoin Babyface Solution (the red and the orange box respectively) contain hydroquinone, a hair dye bleaching agent that can harm the skin if used without proper professional medical advice Even a clothing store is getting into the act of selling unregistered medicine

Toiletries and medicine section of the clothing store in Ranau

Unregistered skin ointments from China (the boxes in the middle) labelled as containing scheduled poisons anti fungals

The lack of pharmacy and a limited number of medical clinics.. medicine shop such as above is thriving in the rural area. Don't be surprised if they sell controlled medicines just like in any pharmacy or clinic.

Hazzards Along the Road

During our trail blazing act in Kudat we witness a tragedy. The bane of long haul travelling is the risk of involvement in road accident. It is normal for the human body to tire after exerting itself especially after non-stop driving. When such thing occur it is best to stop and rest. Then again such accident can be caused by the use of unregistered medicine. These medicine that is usually being marketed as traditional product is in fact adulterated with antihistamine that causes drowsiness rendering the user unable to operate heavy machinery. Unsuspecting user of such medicine does not know that unless it is declared on the product labels. In our travels and enforcement job we always keep safety as our top priority. We always stay on alert and adopt safe driving and of course pray before such journey. The 4-WD Pickup on the ditch after the driver momentarily fell asleep on the wheels, swerved the vehicle to the opposite road lane, awoke and shocked to see an incoming car, made a sudden forced turn while slamming the brakes, the car made a 180 degrees tumble and turn turtle

Notice the mangled chassis due to the impact... The driver actually came out alive in this one...

Trail Blazing in Kudat

The map above is the District of Kudat, one of the 5 main district in Sabah. Our campaign in this district has been progressing steadily since 2004. Most of the main town located in this locality namely Kota Marudu, Pitas, Matunggong and Kudat has been visited except for Banggi island. Initially the consumer education campaign starts off from the main towns targeting health facilities like medicine shops, supermarkets, medical halls and groceries stores. Whereas Clinics and Pharmacy in these towns had been monitored since the 90's. The campaign has progress steadily to sundries shop in the outskirts of town. Lately there have been a trend of irresponsible parties to distribute unregistered health product to the rural areas. This is due to the dwindling market for their goods in the town area due to increase awareness in registered product sale. It has been encouraging to note that most retailers in the town areas know about health product registration and sale. This can be partly attributed to the efforts by licenced wholesalers who themselves have been informed about the product registration during a campaign blitz in 2004 by the department. This is an example of smart partnership between the enforcement agency and the bussiness community namely health product licensed wholesaler. We need to work together hand in hand for the journey ahead. Here are some graphic glimpses of our campaign trail in Kudat. Sundry shop owners are usually honest people trying to earn

a living and they usually ignorant about the do and don't of medicine sales

Note the simple design of the shop.. wooden structure on stilts with wire mesh

Sundry shop being far from town becomes a multi-goods stores that sells anything from diesel (for generators), to cooking gas to medicines and other daily necessities. This makes them perfect targets for unregistered medicines supplier

One of the unregistered product laced with steroids found in one of the shops in Kudat. It's called Maajun Kuat and medicines sold in this form we called "Ubat Papan" has been banned by the authorities since 2005

The Region Where We Enforce The Law

This is Sabah, Malaysia where where we currently enforce 4 laws pertaining to medicine, chemical and health product. Sabah land mass is about 73,631 sq. km area, the northern most part of the island of Borneo and east of the capital city of Malaysia,Kuala Lumpur. It is known as the Land Below the Wind (a name coined by an Englishwoman Agnes Keith, a writer). In our language we term it as "Sabah Negeri di Bawah Bayu". Sabah basically consist of 5 main districts. There are (please see map above) clockwise from top Kudat, Sandakan, Tawau, Interior and West Coast. Currently up to this date, we have a strength of 12 enforcement officers to cover the whole of Sabah. 2 officers based in Tawau, 1 each in Sandakan and Keningau and the rest at our HQ in Kota Kinabalu. Simple math tells you 1 enforcement officer per 6,135 sq. km, a daunting task but we relish the challenge.

The relevant laws that we enforce are;
1. Poisons Act 1952

- An Act to regulate the importation, possession, manufacture, compounding, storage, transport, sale and use of poisons

2. Sale of Drugs Act 1952 -

An Act relating to the sale of drugs

3. Medicines (Advertisement and Sale) Act 1956

- An Act to prohibit certain advertisements relating to medical matters and to regulate the sale of substances recommended as a medicine

4. Dangerous Drugs Act 1952

- An Act to make further and better provision for the regulating of the importation, exportation, manufacture, sale, and use of opium and of certain other dangerous drugs and substances, to make special provision relating to the jurisdiction of courts in respect to offences thereunder and their trial, and for purposes connected therewith