PLASA is and has been an active member of the Codeine Care initiative
A few years ago it was realised globally, and in South Africa, that the growing and extensive misuse and abuse of codeine required urgent attention. One such action was to up-schedule codeine-containing products, hence making many OTC cold and flu products available only via a doctor’s prescription. This would stop all pharmacy OTC sales of dozens of codeine-containing products.
A number of countries introduced various legislation and other mechanisms to try to limit access to codeine-containing products.
The attached paper/position statement, written by Prof. Yaha E. Choonra (WITS), elegantly describes the pros and cons for and against up-scheduling codeine-containing products in South Africa.