Health: Codeine, Tramadol And Postinor 2 Use, A Ticking Time Bomb

FRANCIS EZEDIUNO writes about the abuse of prescription of everyday medicine, including paracetamol, tramadol, codeine-based cough syrup and even sweet like TomTom amongst others.

• Continued from last edition

Amongst students, the use of codeine is also common just to prove that they are ‘macho’ enough so the girl in question will see every reason to have a tough guy as her companion.

In terms of those who believe it boosts sexual performances, being high on tramadol, makes the man to go extra mile and delays ejaculation but there have been instances where such male addicts over perform on bed and this leads to serious consequence and death in some instances have always been end result of such misadventure.

What is Tramadol?

Tramadol is an opiod pain medication used to treat moderately severe pain. When taken by mouth in an immediate release formulation, the onset of pain relief occurs within an hour.

Long term use of high doses of Tramadol will cause physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms.

Postinor 2

Sex is good! Sex is sweet! Sex is exciting! Nobody wants to take responsibility for the seeds of irresponsible sex, done in a hurry without protection and without commitments from either partners or couples as the case may be.

What is the option after the deed is done? “Please if you know you don’t like using condoms, make sure you have purchased a Postinor 2 tablet for me to use after, so as to prevent unwanted pregnancy”.

Popularly referred to as the “Morning After pill”, Postinor 2 is an emergency contraception pill used to prevent unsolicited or unexpected pregnancies. Take note of the word “emergency”. Procured with 750 micrograms of Levonorgestrel and other ingredients such as Gelatin, Talc, Potato starch and so many on, Postinor 2 is a very effective contraceptive pill.

Most people abuse Postinor 2 without really knowing its effects and some people even use it without knowing how to use it, when to use it and if they should even use it at all.

Postinor 2 is meant to be used as an emergency contraception method and not a regular method of contraception. However, because many people who use Postinor 2 do not know this or choose to ignore it, it has been turned into a regular method of contraception. Some ladies even try to use Postinor 2 as an abortion method and they use it even when they have been confirmed to be pregnant.

The use of Postinor 2 as a regular contraception pill can result into many harmful and negative effects on the body unknown to ladies who use it. As effective as Postinor 2 has been proven to be, it however must not be used by everyone. People with these health conditions should not even contemplate using Postinor 2. They include; pregnant women, people with high blood pressure, Diabetes mellitus, Ischaemic Heart Disease, Breast cancer, stroke.

In short, there are some set of people that must not use Postinor 2 as a contraceptive pill due to the state of their health and other reasons. Because of their ignorance and the inability to take time out to find out about the suitability of this pill with their body before using it, some people continue to use it without knowing that it is causing more harm than good to their health and body as a whole.

Effects of prolonged use of Postinor 2 include; vaginal bleeding, severe drug interaction, sexually transmitted diseases, infertility risks and weight gain.

The sad thing is that it is the elite that are abusing Postinor 2, but unknown to them overuse of this drug has its own side effect.

Investigations has revealed that these drugs are not even to be procure even by the under-aged children.

During the course of writing this piece, investigations concluded that virually all pharmaceutical stores are guilty of dispensing drugs to willing customers without proper prescription. There is no need to mention any specific one here because all the pharmaceutical stores and not a single one is guilty. By authorization, it is meant that a prescription slip will be issued and duly signed by the physician.

Another occasion is that of mini mart owners prescribing drugs for their customers and this makes one wonder when did we start having such in this state that people who don’t have the first idea of pharmacology of drugs start prescribing drugs to their customers simply because when they had similar complaints they used such drugs and it worked for them. That is drug abuse too.

Anybody can walk into a pharmacy store and request for codeine, tramadol, postinor 2, Rephnol, steroids and other assorted antibiotics just as one purchases ordinary paracetamol from the counter.

These youths have even found ways of mixing up these drugs to produce an even lethal cocktail of drugs.

Some go for gum and evostic which can be purchased from any shop dealing in household repair products. They mix hypo used with cleaning stubborn stains from clothes with lacasera apple drink, TomTom sweet in either lacasera or coca-cola.

Other cocktails include, urine stored up for more than 10 days, after which the Ammonium if gives off will be inhaled, mixing of Methylated spirit in Codeine, gathering and sun drying spirogyra, lizard dropping, plantain leaves and afterwards grinding and sniffing it in form of snuff, burnt tyres, burnt bitumen and burnt plastic products like carpets.

In a recent chat with a former addict, “there is nothing much they gain from it other than the feeling of being high”.

There are many corners visited in Osun today especially Oshogbo that traces of youths involved in the high stakes life of drug consumption are easily noticed. Birthday parties in clubs are another arena where drug consumption is rife. This is also the case in other parts of the country, the rate is even higher in some states.

Without being partial, there is no club, even in the school hostels, parent’s parlour and NYSC orientation camp, where there is no traces of drug abuse, investigations revealed.

How can such stop when drugs both licensed and unlicensed is involved in the drug trade.

How To Tackle It

According to Dr. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control [NAFDAC] on The Stream, a live interactive interview programme on AlJazeera, the federal government of Nigeria through the agency has carried out the following:

A] Placed embargoes on issuance of export permit and hold on codeine manufacturing in the country

B] Map out steps for recall of product and conduct an audit trail

C] Embark on nationwide pharmacovigilance. NAFDAC is set to launch awareness campaigns to different parts of the country.

D] Closure of open drugs markets in towns like Kano, Aba, Onitsha, Lagos before the 31st of December, 2018 deadline.

Osun should not be left behind because whether the government likes it or not, the scourge of drug abuse is real and on the streets and road corners of major towns including Oshogbo and in most of the campuses of higher education and even in the state-owned high schools.

Many testimonies abound as to the proliferation of drugs abuse, you just need to go out after sunset and see for yourself the evil this is causing.

This is a wakeup call. The time to act is now for any further waste of time could spell doom! As it is affecting the poor, it is affecting the rich and affluent. Nobody is immuned!