Hyderabad: The Drug Control Administration (DCA), Telangana, as part of a special drive to curb the illegal sale of habit-forming drugs, conducted raids across the state on Friday, May 23.

The raids were conducted on 142 medical shops across the state, and focused on detecting the illegal sale of habit-forming drugs, including Codeine-containing cough syrups, Nitravet (Nitrazepam) Tablets, Alprazolam tablets, Tramadol tablets, Zolpidem tablets, Tydol tablets (Tapentadol), etc.

Discrepancies were detected in 142 medical shops regarding the sale of habit-forming drugs, and Show Cause Notices were issued for initiating departmental action. During the special raids, officers found several discrepancies related to the sale of habit-forming drugs in the medical shops.

“The officers detected several violations related to the indiscriminate sale of habit-forming drugs,” said Shahnawaz Qasim, Director General of the Drug Control Administration (DCA).

These violations included the sale of such drugs without a prescription from a Registered Medical Practitioner and the sale of habit-forming drugs without issuing bills. Officers also found non-maintenance and failure to produce sales bills, along with the dispensing of these drugs in the absence of a registered pharmacist.

Further discrepancies included the failure to produce purchase bills, failure to maintain prescription drug registers and Schedule H1 drug registers, and irregularities in maintaining copies of sales and purchase bills. Other violations of the Drugs Rules were also noted during the inspections.