UNITED NATIONS, March 1 (UPI) -- The price of illicit drugs usually is below the market cost of legal medication, but the U.N.-backed International Narcotics Control Board said the cost to consumers is often much higher in risk to health and can be as high as death.
The Vienna-based INCB called for "elimination of the unregulated market ... through a concerted effort involving governments and relevant parties such as the pharmaceutical industry, wholesalers, retailers, professional associations, consumer and patient groups and international organizations."
"It is important for consumers to realize that what they think is a cut-price medication bought on an unregulated market may have potentially lethal effects whenever the consumed drugs are not the genuine product or are taken without medical advice," said Philip Emafo, INCB president at a briefing at the UN's New York headquarters. "Instead of healing, (these drugs) can take lives."
The report warned unofficial drug sales, due to a lack of standards, result in substandard and even lethal medications going to unsuspecting customers. Narcotics sold on the black market are often stolen from legitimate health-care centers or retailers, illicitly manufactured or sold illegally on the Internet.
"Although the phenomenon of the unregulated market is not a new one, it is of particular concern to the board that in recent years, an increasing volume and variety of internationally controlled substances are available in the unregulated market," Emafo said in a statement accompanying the 7-page report.
"Traffickers are turning to innovative ways of trafficking and diverting such substances, including the trans-national distribution of counterfeit drugs and the use of the Internet and the postal and courier services for illicit drug trafficking," he continued.
"Activities of the unregulated market expose patients to serious health risks through the delivery of often poorly documented, unsafe, ineffective or low quality medicine," Emafo said.
The illicit market ranges from a registered pharmacist selling a legal, but controlled substance without a prescription to a non-pharmacist selling the same controlled substance at a village fair to an Internet pharmacy accepting faxes of a legitimate prescription which could be faxed multiple times to similar pharmacies, the report said.
The illicit market also includes "ad hoc or makeshift outlets in village fairs or markets where drugs are sold along with other commodities, such as balms, tonics and creams, to more organized systems operated by unscrupulous manufacturers, importers, retailers, wholesalers and health-care professionals."
Said the report, "The price of most medicinal products found on the unregulated market is likely to be lower than the price of those products in regulated pharmacies. In the case of counterfeit drugs, there are significant profits for the illicit manufacturer, as counterfeit drugs cost much less to manufacture and distribute than genuine drugs"
"Drugs smuggled into a country or diverted from licit channels may be cheaper, as customs or import duties and other applicable taxes are usually evaded," it said.
"On the other hand, the price of certain internationally controlled drugs available through the Internet may in fact be higher than the price of those products in regulated pharmacies, and the consumer might not be aware of this."
The INCB also said counterfeit drugs, as opposed to illicit drugs in general, are a relatively new problem, not formally recognized as a problem until the mid 1980s.
The U.N.'s World Health Organization estimated 25-50 per cent of the medicines consumed in developing countries were believed to be counterfeit. The Geneva-based agency said a 1995 counterfeit vaccine used in Niger in caused about 2,500 deaths.
Some counterfeit drugs are easy to manufacture, so easy it has been known where an illicit manufacturer didn't even bother putting a similar or substitute substance inside a capsule, instead leaving it empty.
"Such drugs may closely resemble genuine products in terms of their packaging and labeling," the INCB said. "Controlled narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances may be present in products without any mention of such drugs or substances on the labels or package inserts. This has been a problem in some countries with herbal or traditional medicines.
The manufacture and distribution of counterfeit drugs on a larger scale often involves unscrupulous manufacturers, pharmacists, wholesalers, retailers and brokers.
The report said brokers facilitate international trade in drugs and remain largely invisible to the authorities and, contrary to treaty requirements, "brokers in some countries are not regulated by national drug control legislation."
The report also highlighted developments in specific regions of the world, pointing out, for example, cultivation and production of cannabis and the trafficking of cocaine was on the rise in Africa. It suggested African countries continue efforts to enhance their respective drug control policies.
