Chief of the Public Affairs Unit at the Traditional Medicine Practice Council (TMPC), Numo Blafo III, has stressed the importance of obtaining licenses for individuals involved in the trade of traditional medicines.

He clarified that this requirement is essential to enable the Council to effectively oversee and organise individuals selling such types of medicines to the public, ensuring that unsuspecting individuals are not adversely affected.

Numo Blafo III said this to the media during a routine enforcement exercise of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council aimed at ensuring that people who are selling herbal medicine without certification or license are identified, educated on the best practices, and in extreme cases, arrested.

Numo Blafo III stressed the need for the products that are sold on the streets to be FDA-certified.

“This exercise is actually aimed at clearing out the quacks within the system because there are a lot of reports of people selling things they claim to be herbal medicines. Sometimes, people use them and it doesn’t work and sometimes too, they are not sure of the potency or the efficacy of the products they are selling.

“We now have some products which are on shelves and those products should be authorized by the FDA. So, most of the time when we come, as the TMPC, we actually regulate the practice and the practitioners, so when we come and you’re not licensed to sell, we have to cause your arrest or educate you on the need for you to do the license and the certificate.

“But then when we also see that you are peddling certain items not certified by the FDA, then that is where we actually hold you and refer you to the FDA,” he explained.