The Member of Parliament for Garu, Dr. Thomas Anabah, has sharply criticized the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) for failing to curb the unlawful sale of opioids and other harmful drugs across the country, pointing to systemic breakdowns in enforcement and legislative support.
Speaking on the role of regulatory bodies in protecting public health, Dr. Anabah emphasised that the responsibility of ensuring drug safety does not lie with traditional leaders or private citizens but solely with the FDA.
It is the body mandated to regulate, inspect, and license drugs sold on the Ghanaian market.
“Food and drugs board is supposed to ensure that no one sells any drug in the country that is not lawful, any drug that is harmful to the people”
Dr. Thomas Anabah, MP for Garu
According to the MP, the widespread availability of powerful opioids, signals a deep failure within the country’s drug control systems.
He questioned how such drugs could even enter the Ghanaian market in the first place, highlighting gaps not only in regulatory enforcement but also at the nation’s borders.
Dr. Anabah was unequivocal in his assessment of the broader institutional weaknesses.
He maintained that while the FDA is at the frontline of drug regulation, its inability to control the influx and sale of opioids reflects a wider systemic failure that includes border authorities and quality control agencies.
“That is where the problem with borders comes in. That’s why we have to say that it’s a system failure. It’s not only the food and drugs board, even in our quality control team”
Dr. Thomas Anabah, MP for Garu
He drew attention to the contradiction of drugs being accessible in places where they legally shouldn’t be.
“You go to over the counter, those OTCs and you can even buy antibiotics. But they are not supposed to sell antibiotics. They’re supposed to sell food supplements. Yet you go to some of them and you can buy an opioid”
Dr. Thomas Anabah, MP for Garu
To him, the increasing over-the-counter outlets stocking antibiotics, opioids, and other substances they are not authorized to sell warrants immediate action, especially from the FDA.
Parliamentary Involvement
While criticising the current state of enforcement, Dr. Anabah also laid part of the blame on legislative inertia.
He called on the FDA to take a more proactive stance by seeking parliamentary support to update legal frameworks that would better enable them to carry out their responsibilities.
“They should write to parliament that ‘we need this and this and this, let’s change the policy this way,’ then we support them and we push them”
Dr. Thomas Anabah, MP for Garu
The Garu MP argued that simply acknowledging the challenge of limited resources is not enough.
He urged the FDA to present their logistical and legal challenges formally to Parliament to facilitate stronger regulatory tools and increased funding where necessary.
Tramadol Regulation
One of the more troubling aspects raised by Dr. Anabah was the presence of high-dose tramadol in the Ghanaian market, a substance he believes should never have made it past the country’s regulatory filters.
“How do we have 250 milligrams tramadol in this country?” he questioned, adding that its availability in the country is a signal of the regulatory body’s compromised integrity.
He stressed that the responsibility for these lapses lies squarely with the authorities, not with consumers or peripheral actors in the drug chain.
Upon this premise, he lamented the woes that would befall the youth of the country and its economy as a whole if things continue as they were.
In concluding his remarks, Dr. Anabah reiterated the urgency of strengthening both legislation and enforcement to fight the influx of such drugs.
While he stopped short of accusing the FDA of complete negligence, he maintained that the agency must do far more to justify its regulatory role.
“So to me, if I say the system has failed, yes, the system has failed and we need to up it to ensure that we minimize it or abolish it completely”
Dr. Thomas Anabah, MP for Garu
Ghana continues to battle growing concerns around drug abuse and public health.
Dr Thomas Anabah’s comments highlight the pressure on state institutions to clamp down on illegal pharmaceutical practices and collaborate more effectively across ministries and regulatory bodies for lasting solutions.
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