Concern is growing over the cheap and easily available schedule 2 products at many outlets, including spaza shops, in the Eastern Cape – with no questions asked.
Daily Dispatch reports that buying illegal medication is as easy as uttering two words: “Ndithenga iyeza (I would like to buy medicine)”, which was all that was said by a Daily Dispatch and Go!& Express team at one spaza shop in Duncan Village.
The money was extended to the shopkeeper through an opening in the steel protective mesh. He passed over a 100ml bottle of AstraPain Syrup (registration 27/22,0139), though it was discreetly wrapped in paper.
He was paid R65 for medicine usually prescribed for children aged six to 12 to relieve mild to moderate pain associated with fever. It contains paracetamol, codeine phosphate and promethazine hydrochloride.
The schedule 2 drug should, by law, be dispensed by licensed pharmacists, preferably on prescription by a doctor.
Schedule 2 drugs all come with a warning of a risk of “dependency”.
Yet South African youths are getting high on AstraPain, downing two to three bottles that are mixed into a two-litre bottle of cold drink.
At a small shack behind another house in Pefferville Township, we were able to buy another bottle of AstraPain. Sources said this was a well-known drug den, which sold the tranquilliser Xanax as well as other codeine-based cough syrups.
We were told the Xanax was sold out, but we could return later in the day when there would be stock.
We were able to buy medication from 22 illegal vendors across the metro in Qonce, Bhisho, Zwelitsha and KuGompo.
We bought what were sold to us as Adco-Dol painkillers, also a schedule 2 drug, as loose pills for R2 each – no packaging, no dosage instructions, no side-effect warnings.
Adco-Dol contains paracetamol, codeine phosphate, caffeine and doxylamine succinate.
One trader in Qonce offered pills in bulk, clearly believing we would be wanting to sell them on, saying we should return when no one was there. Not once were we questioned about our purchases. We asked, they supplied, and we paid about R700 in total.
However, the most concerning discovery was the unrestricted sale of Adco-Dol, which carries a risk of dependency if misused. Adco-Dol tablets were all sold loose, but prices varied from R2 to R5 each, and they would often only be sold in doubles.
There was no sign of the legally required original packaging, dosage instructions, expiry dates or batch information.
Conditions in many of the shops also raised red flags. The meds were stored in hot, poorly ventilated structures – a further breach of national pharmaceutical laws. Many of the shops were containers, or cinder block, with few or no windows and poor ventilation, and hot and stuffy rooms.
Schedule 2 drugs are required to be securely stored under lock and key in their original packaging, in a cool, dry, well-ventilated facility.
In hot, humid conditions, these medications can degrade.
There was no question of paperwork – definitely no receipts. One employee said most shops got their medicines from suppliers in Qonce. His boss bought pills from “a big shop” he described as a warehouse. “They also stock cigarettes,” he said.
“While the SAPS is not the lead authority on pharmaceutical regulations, we play a vital role in supporting law enforcement efforts,” Eastern Cape police spokesperson Nobuntu Gantana said.
“The SAPS often assists in joint, multidisciplinary operations focusing on illicit goods, working alongside the Department of Health, law enforcement agencies and the SA Revenue Service.”
Gantana said police had yet to receive a formal complaint about these illicit sales, nor had a docket been opened.
“Members of the public are encouraged to report such activities. But at the same time, we also need public health education. We are not investing enough as a country.
“We are not telling the public what it is that they should be able to access only from pharmacies and what they cannot access from shops like this,” she said.
A teenager showed how people diluted a full 100ml bottle of AstraPain into a two-litre soft drink to create a potent mixture.
Within seconds, the clear drink turned a deep purple. He said users often combined the mixture with other substances to intensify the effect.
“Most people boost their high by smoking nyaope or dagga. Some add Xanax,” he said, adding that the consequences were visible the next day.
“They wake up in the morning with swollen faces.”
He said other products like Stilpane, a painkiller containing codeine, and Alcophyllex, the cough syrup containing theophylline and diphenhydramine, were also popular.
“They find ways to get Xanax from pharmacies around town because the word is that Stilpane and Alcophyllex are not as strong as they used to be,” he said. “So they try to boost it.”
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