The chairman Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Oyo state chapter, Pharmacist Abiodun Ajibade has highlighted the relevance of pharmacists in the health care delivery system of any nation.

He made the disclosure while speaking at the event organised to mark the world pharmacy day on Tuesday in Ibadan.

"Globally today, all pharmacists are celebrating world pharmacists day. The day also serves as a platform for advocacy so that people will know the benefits of having pharmacists.

"Not only that, it gives us an opportunity to speak to government on the challenges that are encountered on a daily basis in the area of health and health delivery in every nation," he said.

According to him, "Pharmacists are important elements and integral members of the health care delivery system. No health care can be complete without medicine and that means pharmacists are the most important people when it comes to health care delivery".

He added that pharmacists are trained to be able to deliver quality service when it comes to health interventions.

He also revealed that the society is working on a project to tackle the menace posed by drug abuse.

"This programme is designed to flag off a major programme that PSN is taking on. We are all aware of the challenges of drug abuse. The level of drug abuse in the society is so alarming and it is causing the nation great havoc. As pharmacists, we are not happy because all these products that have been abused are our children- we created them in our labs, we manufactured them in our companies, we dispense them in the pharmacy but unfortunately many people are taking the negative side of this drugs to become addicts. And for us as PSN, particularly the Oyo state chapter, we believe this is a clarion call to everyone. We must ensure we stamp out drug abuse in its entirety, and that is why this program is put in place to elicit reactions and interactions among key stakeholders.

The drug abuse roundtable which will be kicking off in earnest has CEOAfrica as official media partner.