Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on June 4 sought death penalty for those involved in manufacture, sale and distribution of spurious drugs.

“To curb the menace of fake drugs, we need to get touch on the drug traffickers. And the toughness include the death penalty,” DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan said. He said they kill hundreds and hundreds of people and most of them don’t even go to jail. They need to be punished for the carnage they cause. “The amended Drug and cosmetic act of 2008 contains maximum punishment of life imprisonment,” he said.

Dr Hassan said capital punishment has proved effective in other countries like China. “In 2007, former head of China’s state food and drug administration was executed for his involvement in substandard drugs which proved to be a strong deterrent,” he said. He said India is the capital of spurious drugs and according to WHO, India accounts for nearly 35 per cent of world spurious drug market. In an estimate, 40 per cent of the Indian market is under the grip of spurious drugs.

“From cancer to heart medicines and from antibiotics to vaccines, drugs in all therapeutic categories have been reported to be either substandard or counterfeit,” he said. “There are clandestine factories that have been making these sham drugs,” he added. Dr Hassan said Kashmir is a safe haven for spurious drugs as the market is unchecked and unregulated and there is no fear of accountability.

“In 2013, we unearthed a big spurious drug scandal in which many people were involved. Lakhs of tablets of fake drug maximizin, a life-saving antibiotic were supplied to government hospitals,” he said “Following expose of this fake drug, hundreds of drugs which were consumed by patients were declared substandard,” he added.