Pharmaceutical Society Lash Out At Police Over Kinapharma �Cocaine� Issue

The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Dr. Alex Doodo, has harshly criticized the Police Service for the unprofessional conduct put up by some of its personnel who carried out a raid at the Spintex Road warehouse of Kinapharma, a Pharmaceutical Company, and its subsequent ordering of a search and confiscating of chemicals for further analysis, all in bid to hang a �cocaine-dealing� noose around the neck of three managers of the company. He has also urged the media to exercise a bit of circumspection in their reportage and not be too hasty in drawing out conclusions about cases under police investigations. �The pharmacy society can be viewed as having an interest in the story, �In doing their routine job, they (police) must be seen to be fair, but most importantly, how stories get to the newspapers is indeed worrying,� he said. The police has been receiving a lot of flak recently following certain acts of unprofessionalism exhibited by some of its personnel and this latest botched hunt for narcotics at Kinapharma, based on a tip-off, seems to be pinnacle of their amateurism, particular when Kinapharma is demanding an official apology from the Police with plans of even initiating a law suit against the Service. In an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on PEACEFM�s �Kokrokoo�, Dr. Doodo expressed worry about the tainting of Kinapharma�s image with cocaine by the over-exuberant police officials, especially when field tests had proved inconclusive. �The story has really worried the pharmaceutical society and there is a need to protect the industry from any intruder�Kinapharma is a big local pharmaceutical industry�, and it is extremely important that not just Kinapharma, but Ernest Chemists, Tobinco, Kama and all the local industry players are accorded the needed respect and decorum�,� he said. According to him, �If you go to a Pharmaceutical Company, you will always find white powder, because most powders are white,� pointing out that that is not indicative of illicit drug trade. �To pursue a case against a pharmaceutical company, one must be backed by strong evidence� The Governing board met on Saturday, and I am the chairman of the board as well. What we said was this, we do not want any Ghanaian company to lose its business because people [who] should do things, have done them wrongly,� he stated. Consequently, he says, care should be taken in this age of the information super-highway (internet). �Anything said about Kinapharma, goes all over the world, if Dan Adams, Ernest and Kama goes down as well, it is Ghana which suffers� at the end of the day what is good for Kinapharma, is good for Ghanaian business,� he said. The police picked up three top officials of Kinapharma Pharmaceutical Company for possessing substances prohibited under Ghana�s Narcotic Control law. The three have since been freed, after tests on the chemicals proved negative for cocaine. They are therefore demanding an official apology from the Police Service.