Sources of Cough Medicines Abused by the Addicts in a Southern Province

Abstract

Objective: To find the information on sources of distribution of cough medicines abused by the addicts in a southern province. Method: The researcher conducted in-depth interviews on the distribution of cough syrups with 20 participants of activities in drug rehabilitation camps who had misused cough syrup. The sample selection was conducted using a snow ball sampling technique. The activity leader of the camp, who was close to the participants, identified the first informant who, in turn, identified the next informants. The interviews were conducted until the collected information was saturated. In addition, the researcher also observed the sale of cough medicines in all sources of distribution identified by the informants. Results: There were three sources of cough syrup distribution in the study area; 1) open retail outlets both from drug stores and grocery stores. 2) Smuggling wholesaler from a warehouse. Dealers were drugstores in a neighboring province. The informant in this issue was a retailer in his own grocery store, with the order of 10 cartons of cough syrup for each time of purchase from warehouses at a cost of 4,000 baht per carton. 3) facebook where sellers used pickup trucks to deliver the drugs to buyer. The informant had ordered 5 cartons at a time from this source with a cost of 45 baht per bottle. From the observation, sellers in drug stores had not questioned the buyers on chief symptoms for buying the drugs, but delivered the drugs immediately upon request. Sometimes sellers offered drugs in the other trade names, if there was no drug with the requested trade names. However, selling more than 3 bottles of the drug as prohibited by the law was not observed. Conclusion: The findings can be used to monitor drug stores and grocery stores that are still illegally sell the drugs with the cooperation with other agencies in order to strictly enforce the law.