Anambra State residents may soon heave a sigh of relief over the menace of deadly herbal concoctions, as the State House of Assembly recently passed the Anambra State Herbal Practice Bill 2024.
Across the state, all manner of people peddles all kinds of concoctions, selling to people, with no form of regulation or control from the government.
Most consumers of these concoctions eventually come down with all kinds of kidney sicknesses, as seen from statistics obtained from the State Ministry of Health, while many have also died.
The Anambra State Herbal Practice Bill 2024, when accented to by the state governor, will seek to regulate and sanitize herbal practices in the state.
At plenary yesterday, the legislators passed the private member bill sponsored by Hon. Tony Muobike, the member representing Aguata Constituency Two and Chairman of the House Committee on Health.
The bill had gone to the committee stage months ago and was scrutinized by the Joint Committee on Health and Judiciary.
During plenary, the House considered the report of the joint committee and after due consideration of the report, the bill was read for the third and final time, and then passed into law through voice vote, overseen by the Speaker of the House, the Right Hon Somto Udeze.
Speaking to journalists after the passage of the bill, the sponsor, Hon. Muobike regretted that the menace of herbal concoctions has caused so much death and damage to the people.
According to him, almost every Tom, Dick and Harry in the state is a herbal practitioner, with no regulation, no data, no control, and no research.
“You just see all kinds of people take anything they want, cook it, bottle it, and begin to sell. So it’s just confusion and chaos everywhere.
“If you look at the manner of fatalities we have in the state, many people are having all kinds of kidney diseases and when you investigate them, you will trace them to the concoctions they had consumed,” he said.
Muobike expressed confidence that when passed, the bill will ensure that herbal practice is done in the state under a very standard and regulated platform.
According to him, the Bill clearly stipulates who is a herbal practitioner, as well as goes into the production of the herbal products.
“There is now a means to know what products qualify as herbal products and they are labeled.
“This law also makes provision for the cultivation of some herbal plants which appear to be fast fizzling out and many other aspects.
“So, this law is meant to address a lot of lacunae that existed in the herbal practice.
“Just like other laws we had passed in the past in the health sector, this law is meant to address quackery and engender a system of orderliness and standardization, for the practice of herbal medicine in Anambra state,” he said.
Muobike thanked his colleagues and the Speaker of the House, for their support which he acknowledged helped the bill to scale through.