Accra, June 24, GNA - Mr Edward Amporful, Chief Pharmacist at the Cocoa Clinic in Accra, on Friday advised the public to return all unused, unwanted and expired drugs to the Clinic for proper disposal. "Unwanted or expired drugs are the main causes of accidental poisoning of people, leading to drug abuse by teenagers at home, so patients do not have any reason to get excess medicines at home," he said.

Mr Amporful made the call at a workshop in Accra to educate the public on the importance of following the regime of prescriptions and the consequences of inappropriate disposal of unused medicines. The workshop was part of the Clinic's sensitization programme, dubbed, 94Disposal of Unused Medicines Programme" that seeks to help reduce the misuse of unwanted drugs in homes that could result in the loss of lives.

Mr Amporful stated that many people did not understand the diseases they had and the importance of the medicines that were administered to them and sometimes refused to follow prescriptions. These unused drugs, according to him, were left to expire and sometimes passed on to others without the advice of a professional health care provider or were accidentally used by unsuspecting persons, especially children.

"There have been many instances where children are rushed to the Clinic as a result of unwanted or unused medicines that these children have swallowed and because the drugs have been left for a long time, the labels fade, making it difficult for us to identify them to help treat the patients," he said.

Mr Amporful advised the public to always understand and strictly follow prescriptions that were given to them to prevent accumulation of medicines at home. He added that medicines should not be shared with other persons due to perceived illness without considering their harmful effects on the individuals.

Mr Amporful said the Clinic had made arrangements with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) to return unwanted medicines collected from people to for proper disposal and urged the public to send such drugs to any Cocoa Clinic pharmacy in the country. "You do not have to disclose your identity to anyone; receptacles and bins have been provided at the pharmacy to receive all unused, unwanted and expired medicines," he stated.