BLACK MARKET MEDICINE

It is well known that in many countries there exist a large number of secret drug producing plants, the so-called black market plants. Black-market medicine makers sell and produce not only out-dated drugs but also contaminated medications. Dangerous restricted drugs like LSD and the stimulant amphetamine are manufactured specially for illicit selling. A wide variety of other drugs used to fill prescrip­tions for sick people are produced in secret drug producing plants.

Industry information and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report that every large drug company faces the problem of imitations of its products. Preparations ot black market аre found inter­mixed in almost every type of commonly prescribed medications: tranquillizers, sedatives, stimulants, hormones, cardiac drugs, diuretics, antibiotics, appetite depressants, antihypertensives. Dosage forms are various: from liquids for injections such as vitamin B₁₂ to small round tablets. One of the most complex drugs for manufacture, the gelatin capsules filled with medication, has been a favourite with drug counter­feiters.

Counterfeit tablets and capsules are usually so perfect in their appearance that physicians, pharmacists and patients cannot see any difference. It is necessary to compare such drugs with a true product, both micros­copically and chemically in special laboratories staffed by experts. The drugs are identified by examining the microscopic marks left on a tablet in a compressor during manufacturing. The trade names and monograms of leading companies are made by stolen instruments, dyes, etc.

An American scientist and writer of the book “Black Market Medi­cine” (1967) Margaret Kreig, was the first who helped to unmask the crime business of the mafia. She showed for the first time the mass criminal actions in pharmacy throughout the USA and abroad. She es­tablished that black market drug producers made a wide variety of tab­lets and capsules that look like trade-marked tranquillizers, cardiac drugs, asthma remedies and weight-controlling pills. They are sold to patients, many of whom are seriously ill, through chemist’s and hospi­tals. Counterfeit drugs also include those drugs which are commonly prescribed for the treatment of cancer, arthritis, hypertension, epilepsy, thyroid and other conditions.

Because black-market medicines are often substandard, contami­nated by other drugs and adulterated, they constitute a threat to the health of every person who uses them.

Margaret Kreig divided illicit drugs into several groups 1) imita­tions: these are drugs manufactured to resemble in size, shape and colour the products of other companies; 2) pirated compounds: stolen formulas and antibiotic cultures are used to produce drugs which are then sold in competition with the pharmaceutical companies' products; 3) adulterated drugs: these may include a substance that is not part of the preparation, but usually a cheaper material; 4) contaminated drugs: these may contain impurities, traces of other drugs; 5) counterfeit drugs: drugs which are exact physical copies of trade marked drugs, including trade names or monograms on tablets or capsules or containers. They may be adulterated or contaminated.