Bird's eye view of our office

Here's how the office look like from the skyOur office is situated in the KWSP office building complex. It is perched in the 9th floor of block D as per photo below (it's the inner square folks).

Sikuati Town Campaign: A Pictorial Part 2

Here's the long overdue pictorial sequel..

The day after, we woke to a beautiful morning, warm sun and scenic ocean view

This is a close-up of a decorative palm tree around the hotel compound.. well okay I can't resist the temptation to snap 'em with fusion of lively colour, nature at it's very best.

Here's another fast forward for ya. After our court proceeding where there's a marathon of 7 summons cases we went straight to work (no photo taking is allowed in Court). Seen here our officer in half of the formal court attire ie in black and white. We have to lose the suit jacket though, it was pretty hot and humid.

Sikuati town consist of a row of commercial shops, a wet market and some market stalls, a standard staple in interior Sabah. As usual sundry shops are thriving, selling everything under the sun. Seen here a retailer's education campaign briefing session.

The small township is such laid back that a shop owner was manning his shop half naked ie. in his shorts and slippers and nothing else. The man actually greeted us as 'Cikgu' or teacher in Bahasa Malaysia before we introduced ourselves as enforcement officer. Maybe it's because of the black and white attire thingy. All in all the overall knowledge on registered health product is quite satisfactory here in Sikuati. One of the shop proprietor even asked the consequences of selling / possessing unregistered product before we even get to the penalty part. We solemnly informed him that it's a fine not more than RM25,000 or jail sentence of not more than 3 years or both. After covering 8 shops, we wrap it up and went back to Kota Kinabalu.

Sikuati Township Campaign: A Pictorial

Here's a pictorial of our education campaign at Sikuati town from the beginning of the journey to the closure of the campaign

Wisma Sabah a historic building situated at one of the city main entrance, we are almost exiting the city perimeter

The roudabout near Yayasan Sabah.. yep we are definately exiting the city..

This may look like a humble abode to some.. but actually it is a sundry shop smack right near the roadside near Menggatal-Sepanggar area. Where there is medicine we stop by for a check
Fast forward aftter passing by Tuaran we encountered this unique premise. It sure gives a new dimension to the term 'shop house'. Extreme right is the house on stilts for residence and ground floor is the sundry shop connected to the roadside by a bridge structure..

Another of the shop house minus the bridge structure plus a cow and a motorbike

Freshly planted paddy field along the way.. beautiful green carpet

It is a long way to go.. look at the blue cloudy sky

Oopps I spoke to soon, it looks like the sky is about to fall on us...

It sure looks like a storm is brewing.. maybe we can outrun it

Hooray... we sure did outrun it.. hey look a hill clearance... illegally done? Nobody knows..

Look at the destruction....

A damaged road strecth along the way...

Careful there now.. we don't want any untoward incidence to happen..

Another damaged road strecth ahead..

Another sundry shop with local produce and handycraft.. we gotta check 'em all


How long has that been.. it's almost lunch.. now where's that energy bar when you need them?

Another 70km to go..

Fast forward.. after having lunch we got down straight to bussiness. Well okay it's not actually in Sikuati but in Kudat town.

Mum is out and the daugther has the shop all to herself. She's quite smart for her age. We left some educational material for her mom. It has been a long day.. dealings in the District Council and 4 inspections we are ready to call it a day. Next stop is the Court proceeding in Kudat Magistrate Court followed by the Sikuati campaign. Stay tuned.

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.

Pharmacy Enforcement Branch: An Introduction

The Sabah State Pharmacy Enforcement Branch was established since 30 August 1978. It was known then as the Drug Inspection and Enforcement Unit. The first area office was located at 1st Floor, Block A, Warehouse, Karamunsing, Kota Kinabalu. At that time it was the only branch in Sabah with one pharmacy enforcement officer and a pharmacy assistant. From this humble beginning, the office has since extended to having three other area branches in Tawau, Sandakan and Keningau.

The Pharmacy Enforcement Branch is a unit under the Sabah State Health Department, a federal department under the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. Authorized officers who work in this unit are known as Pharmacy Enforcement Officers. What do enforcement officers do? Other than inspecting and raiding shops, there are also other activities that they do. This article will explain the entire picture as a whole.

The Pharmacy Enforcement branch has an important role to protect the health and well-being of the public from the harm of unregistered product. This is done by enforcing the Control of Drugs and Cosmetics Regulations 1984 to control the importation, manufacture, supply, storage, sale, possession and usage of pharmaceutical products. In other words, pharmacy enforcement activities ensure health products used in this country are of good quality, safe and effective.

The Pharmacy Enforcement also processes various licenses and permits applications under the Poisons Act 1952 and its Regulations :
Poisons License Type A - for pharmacist to deal with all poisons

Poisons License Type B - for non-pharmacists to import and do wholesale of industrial chemicals which are controlled as poisons. Sodium Hydroxide Permit - for companies to buy and use Sodium Hydroxide

Apart from issuing poison licenses, the branch also carry out routine checks on clinics, pharmacies and licensed wholesalers of poisons. The main aim is to ensure all poisons are handled, transacted and labeled properly for the safetyof members of the public. During inspection, poisons are checked to ensure they are stored properly - in a room under lock and key. Checking of records on all transactions involving s poisons is to ensure all transaction is legal. Poisons here includes medicines that can cause harm to the public if misused. For instance, medicines that contain poisons can only be supplied by doctors and pharmacists. Other establishment i.e. non-licensed premises and roadside sellers are also inspected to ensure they do not sell medicines containing poisons. Further information can be obtained from the website http://http://www.pharmacy.gov.my/.

Dduring routine checks unregistered products will be confiscated if they are found.. These are products that do not have a specific assigned ‘MAL number’ and hologram sticker. Unregistered products here are medicines including traditional medicines that are not registered with the Drug Control Authority. These products have not been evaluated for their safety, quality and efficacy. Information on registration of products is available at http://www.bpfk.gov.my

Another important enforcement activity by the branch is the control of advertisements of medicinal products and advertisement relating to health or medical services in the mass media and other forms of advertisement eg banners and pamphlets. Advertisements which are approved by the Medicines Advertisement Board are given “KKLIU” approval number and can be published

Activities carried out at the entry points involve screening of import document, checks on parcel post and checks on passengers to prevent entry of unregistered health products and importation of chemical without authorization at the sea port, airport terminals and post-office. Unregistered products or consignements which do not have proper authorizations will be confiscated.

Over the years the Pharmacy Enforcement branch has intensified its activity to contain the problem of unregistered producst. Looking at the figures for the year 2006, the raids themselves contributed to RM476,673.00 worth of poisons and unregistered products seized from traditional medicine stores, unlicensed wholesalers, beauty saloons and pharmacies while seizures of products at entry points amounted up to RM850,000.00.

With the advent of globalization and the limited resources that are available, the Pharmacy Enforcement branch will continue to evolve to meet challenges ahead. Recognising the influence the public have on purchasing trends of pharmaceutical products, healthcare products and cosmetic in the country, the focus of Pharmacy Enforcement will be unto public enlightenment. It is important that the public takes responsibility to ensure the medicines they buy are safe. They must be able to differentiate between ethical and unethical advertisements. We can only achieve these health goals if everyone is in it together. Pharmacy Enforcement branch is here to protect the public from the harm of unregistered products. If the public require any information on the handling or sale of chemicals or health products you can visit us on the 9th Floor, Block D of the KWSP Building, off Karamunsing Road, Kota Kinabalu or call the number 088-231609 / 231610 or by mail to P.O. Box 10607, 88806 Kota Kinabalu or e-mail to cpf@sbh.moh.gov.my. In the near future we will be moving to the 6th Floor of the Federal House, Jalan Mat Salleh, Kota Kinabalu.

© Sabah State Pharmacy Enforcement Branch