Self-medication is dangerous - Pharmacists warn Ghanaians

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• Peter 9 years ago

  As long as there are Class C drugs, what we call "over the counter" drugs, the type of drugs you can buy without a doctors prescription people will always self medicate!!!!!!!!!.
  what should be done is an extensive education ...
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  As long as there are Class C drugs, what we call "over the counter" drugs, the type of drugs you can buy without a doctors prescription people will always self medicate!!!!!!!!!.
  what should be done is an extensive education to the public of what these drugs are, what they are for, how to use them properly and their side effects. In my opinion, drugs are like food, everyone needs it. so its best we make information including the pharmacology of basic drugs and most other drugs that are used most often like those for malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, cholera, diabetes, hypertension, etc and common STD's, like gonorrhea, syphilis, warts, candidiasis, available to the masses in the least complicated language that all can understand and appreciate.Only then can each person fully understand the effect of the drugs they are taking and how to use them responsibly. Think of it.., most of the drugs people abuse or self medicate are drugs that are easy to buy from pharmacy or chemical shops without prescription! stating blankly that self medication is dangerous and can kill you is like telling your 16 yr old daughter or son that sex will get her pregnant and will ruin her life... THAT LINE HAS NEVER STOPPED TEENAGERS FROM HAVING SEX!! Its basic human nature. Being told what happens in the end without a clear explanation of how it happens and what we go through chronologically (in this case how teenage sex and pregnancy affects our lives daily and later)never stops us from trying it out! Its human nature to spend a few peswas or cedis on drugs in the hope that we will get better than to go to the clinic or hospital to pay more to get better.
  National policies should be designed to keep everyone safe and happy in a natural sense and above all must be made IDIOT proof. Forcing people doesnt work all the time... making them understand the sense in what is being said acheives the best results

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