BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO
THE Ministry of Health and Medical Services has raised concerned over the new wide spread Copen drug in the country because of its use extending to children in primary and secondary.
Minister of Health and Medical Services Dr Culwick Togamana speaking in parliament on 5th December 2022 said, “MHMS is equally concerned because of the use of this drug or substance has extended to children who have attended primary schools as well as secondary schools and that is a major concerned for the Ministry.”
He said the ministry is also worried due to that substance is being produced at some hotspots and sold to children.
“That presents even more challenging issues as far as the quality of the substance. The production of it and quality is of real concern as well.
“Based on the information reaching us there has been some spots in Honiara practised the selling of this substance (copen drug).
“This substance is not imported, it is actually made locally. If it’s imported we would actually know the quantity coming into the country.
“According to other information, this drug is composed of a mixture of Colgate, lime and tobacco and use some form of heating to form a substance. So these are extremely dangerous substance that our future leaders are exposed to and it could really harm their health.
“That said, the Ministry of Health will like to investigate further and we need to work closely with the RSPIF attain some samples of copen to do lab analysis,” Togamana said.
He adds, the health ministry will include copen use in Solomon Islands school health survey to verify this information,
“Having said that we have not done any test on this material even our laboratory does not have that capacity to test this substance.
“So maybe if we get hold of this substance we can send it overseas for testing of chemical constitutes,” Togamana said.
ENDS//////////////////////
ENDS//////////////////////
