Members of the Kovai Nilgiris District Chemists and Druggists Association (KNDCDA) staged a demonstration on Wednesday near Red Cross against the central government’s proposal to make medicine trade online.

The health ministry had previously announced that online sale of drugs should be encouraged and the central government is soon to make changes in the amendment approving the online sale of drugs. However, various druggists and pharmacists associations have been opposing the proposal since it would lead to chaos in the society.

As part of the nationwide protests by the All India Chemists and Druggists Association, more than 40,000 pharmacists from all over Tamil Nadu staged a strike on Wednesday demanding that the government revoke the proposal. As many as 3000 drug stores from the Coimbatore region remained closed in support of the protest.

Thirunavukkarasu, the Secretary of the KNDCDA said that the online sale of drugs would lead to large-scale abuse of drugs by anti-social elements. “There may not be a monitoring body and anybody can buy any dosage of drugs without proper prescription,” he added.

He informed that drugs like steroids and sleeping pills will become easily available and many pharmacists would lose their job if the sale goes online. “As many as 2000 D. Pharm diploma graduates will become jobless and 5000 graduates will suffer,” he said.