Pubdate: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 Source: Times of India, The (India) Website: http://www.timesofindia.com/ Contact: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2000 Author: Arun Kumar Das THE STORM BEFORE THE LULL It's not what the doctor ordered. Sedatives being used to get a high, drugs being sold without a prescription. Admittedly, a bitter pill to swallow. Sedatives and tranquillisers are in great demand these days. So, what's new? They have a calming effect. They lull one into sleep. They have always been prescribed for medical reasons. Point taken. But sedatives and tranquillisers are disappearing off chemists' shelves as the rule rather than an exception. And health reasons have nothing to do with it. Phenobarbitone, carisoma, diazepam, .... sedatives all, but thanks to them the local chemist's shop is a buzz of activity. A sedative is asked for. The sedative is given. Money is exchanged over the counter. Something missing? Yes, a doctor's prescription. But that's illegal isn't it? So it is, but the man behind the counter at a drug store in south Delhi has his own interpretation of the law. ``If we insist on a prescription for each and every tablet sold, then we won't be able to sell medicine for even common ailments such as cold, cough, dysentery and muscular sprains. Tell me, who goes to see a doctor to find out if he has a cold?'' he says. But surely sedatives aren't in the same league as the friendly headache-relieving pill? ``No, they're not. Some people might have managed to sneak out sedatives without a prescription during rush hour,'' he adds, sounding satisfied at his logic. By the same logic, it must be rush hour throughout the day (and night) at drug stores in the Capital. After all, those addicted to sedatives get a regular supply of the medicine they want. Over the counter. When doctors prescribe sedatives for a patient, giving him a `high' isn't exactly what they have in mind. While phenobarbitone is prescribed for patients suffering from repeated convulsions, carisoma is supposed to help relieve the patient of arthritis and other related muscular pains. The paperback version of the leather-bound world of heroin, sedative tablets are cheaper than drugs proper and, for drug addicts, probably just as effective a way to play Alien with the rest of the world. That's for the `high' side. On the low side, which is the common denominator for drugs of all kinds, prolonged consumption induces serious side-effects and excessive intake leads to death. Popping in pills to get one's kicks is certainly not what the doctor ordered. And medicine being sold over the counter without a prescription seems to be a bitter pill to swallow for the Capital's medicine men. Satish Jain, head of the neurology department at AIIMS, says he is aware of this practice. ``Greater control should be exercised over the sale of certain drugs and in no case should they be sold without a prescription. The chemist is to blame for sedatives being sold without a prescription and the subsequent repercussions,'' he adds. One way of putting a full stop to the problem would entail the government machinery putting a spanner in the works of `you name it, we sell it' drug stores. And this is a suggestion echoed by H S Kukreja of Kukreja Nursing Home. ``The situation has already acquired menacing proportions. The government should step in before things get worse. It's high time chemists selling sedatives and the like without a prescription were pulled up,'' he says. Apparently, the government is lying low, ``but it isn't lying so low that it can't strike. From time to time, we conduct raids on drug stores to check if they are violating laws,'' says deputy drug controller R D Garg. Apparently, the raids were never conducted during rush hour. Meanwhile, somebody has just asked the man behind the counter at a drug store in south Delhi for some phenobarbitone tablets. And he doesn't have a prescription. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck