Retail Drug Research Articles

Regulatory Compliance and Associated Quality of Amoxicillin in Drug Retail Outlets of Southwestern Ethiopia.

BackgroundWhile the research findings confirm the existence of private drug retail outlets that do not comply with regulatory standards in many low-income countries, there are a lack of reports that evaluate the quality of medicines obtained from these firms. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the regulatory compliance of the retails and associated quality of amoxicillin in Southwestern Ethiopia.MethodologyForty-two drug retail outlets in Jimma town were evaluated using an inspection checklist developed by the Ethiopian regulatory authority, and dispensers from these retail outlets were interviewed using the pretested structured questionnaire. The drug outlets were coded and categorized into noncompliant and compliant drug retail outlets. The physicochemical quality of amoxicillin capsules obtained from these retail outlets were evaluated following methods described in the US Pharmacopoeia.ResultsThe present study revealed that about 54.76% drug retail outlets were compliant with the regulatory standard. Factors like income of retail outlet, experience of dispenser, and training regarding good storage practice were associated with status of regulatory compliance (p-value <0.05). The identification, dissolution, and assay results indicated that all amoxicillin samples obtained from both noncompliant and compliant drug retail outlets complied with pharmacopoeial specification limit. Besides, the independent unequal variance t-test revealed that there is no significant difference between mean dissolution and assay of API of the amoxicillin samples obtained these drug retail outlets (p-value >0.05).ConclusionThe regulatory compliance of private drug retail outlets in Jimma town is not satisfactory. Moreover, the laboratory findings revealed that all samples of amoxicillin capsules compiled with pharmacopoeial specifications acceptance for packaging and labeling information, identification, assay, and dissolution. However, despite the fact that assays of the amoxicillin from retail outlets are within the required specification, the assays of amoxicillin obtained from noncompliant retail outlets appears to be slightly degraded, which may potentially demonstrate the impact of noncompliance of the drug retail outlets on the quality of medicines.

Supply Chain and Delivery of Antimicrobial Drugs in Smallholder Livestock Production Systems in Uganda

This study assessed the veterinary drug supply chain in Uganda, the constraints faced by the actors, and how the challenges influence the use of antimicrobial (AMs) by livestock farmers. We carried out stakeholder consultation workshops, key informant interviews and a knowledge, practices, and awareness survey with actors of the veterinary drug supply chain. We also profiled drugs stored in 23 urban and peri-urban drug shops in Lira and Mukono districts to record the commonly sold drugs. The veterinary drug supply chain is made of several actors including wholesalers, retailers, Animal Health Service Providers (AHSP) and farmers. Nearly ninety per cent of drug retailers and veterinary practitioners did not receive specialized training in veterinary medicine, and most of veterinary practitioners have been in the drug business market for more than 10 years. Antibiotics and anti-helminthics were the most stocked drugs by retailers, with antibiotics ranking highest in terms of contribution to annual financial profits, accounting for 33%. The choice of a drug by veterinary practitioners was mainly informed by past success with efficacy of the drug, and financial capacity of the client (the farmer) to meet the treatment cost. Many veterinary practitioners were not conversant with veterinary drug policies of the country, with Mukono having a higher number (72%) compared to Lira (37%). Veterinary practitioners from Lira district compared to Mukono and those mainly serving small scale farmers relative to large scale smallholders were more knowledgeable about antibiotics and AMR. Several supply chain constraints were identified as potential drivers of misuse of antibiotics that could contribute to AMR. These included low level of education of supply chain actors, particularly drug retailers, poor handling of drugs at purchase and administration practices, low enforcement of policies and regulations, and lack of awareness of stakeholders about policies that regulate drug use. Thus, future interventions to reduce misuse of AM drugs in livestock production systems in Uganda such as capacity building, should also target veterinary input suppliers, and deliberately involve a strong policy advocacy component.

How medicines sales staff is responding to presumptive COVID-19 patients attending drug retail outlets: An exploratory qualitative study.

The objective of this qualitative study was to explore how the medicine sales staff responded to presumptive COVID‐19 patients in Pakistan. The data were obtained from the medicine sales staff working at drug retail outlets of Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan, through in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews using a semi‐structured interview guide. A two‐step sampling strategy was used, including purposive and convenient sampling techniques. Sample size was determined by applying the saturation point criteria. A total of 17 interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using the thematic analysis. Analysis of data yielded six themes and seven sub‐themes. The themes included (1) knowledge about various aspects of COVID‐19, (2) practices of sales staff in response to COVID‐19 pandemic, (3) attitude of sales staff towards COVID‐19 pandemic, (4) services offered to presumptive COVID‐19 patients, (5) challenges encountered during pandemic and (6) suggestions to improve delivery of pharmacy services by sales staff. In Pakistan, non‐pharmacist sales staff had superficial knowledge about COVID‐19. Presumptive COVID‐19 patients were provided with only basic pharmacy services. Professional training is advised among pharmacy sales staff as a short‐term solution to improve their knowledge. As a long‐term goal, the availability of pharmacists at drug retail outlets is warranted.

Prevalence and determinants of inappropriate antibiotic dispensing at private drug retail outlets in urban and rural areas of Indonesia: a mixed methods study

IntroductionThe aim of this mixed-method study was to determine the extent and determinants of inappropriate dispensing of antibiotics by licensed private drug retail outlets in Indonesia.MethodsStandardised patients (SPs) made a...

Determinants of dispensing antibiotics without prescription in Eritrea: a mixed-method qualitative study on pharmacy professionals’ perspective

ObjectiveAntimicrobial resistance is a global public health challenge. Dispensing of antibiotics without prescription (DAWP), a major contributor to antibiotic resistance, is extensive in Eritrea. This study was, therefore, aimed at...

Preferred Pharmacy Networks and Drug Costs

Selective contracting is an increasingly popular tool for reducing health care costs, but any savings must be weighed against consumer surplus losses from restricted access. Recently, many prescription drug plans (PDPs) utilize preferred pharmacy networks to reduce drug prices. Our results suggest that Medicare Part D plans with preferred pharmacy networks pay lower retail drug prices, while subsidized enrollees’ insensitivity to preferred pharmacy cost-sharing discounts reduces these savings. We then estimate pharmacy demand models to quantify the costs and benefits of preferred pharmacy networks, finding that the average enrollee benefits from preferred pharmacy contracting due to reduced out-of-pocket (OOP) costs at preferred pharmacies. (JEL G22, H51, I13, I18, L65, L81)

Decline and Pronounced Regional Disparities in Medical Cocaine Usage in the United States.

Background: Cocaine is a stimulant and Schedule II drug used as a local anesthetic and vasoconstrictor. Objective: This descriptive study characterized medical cocaine use in the United States. Methods: Retail drug distribution data from 2002 to 2017 were extracted for each state from the Drug Enforcement Administration, which reports on medical, research, and analytical chemistry use. The percentage of buyers (pharmacies, hospitals, and providers) was obtained. Use per state, corrected for population, was determined. Available cross-sectional data on cocaine use as reported by the Medicare and Medicaid programs for 2013-2017 and electronic medical records were examined. Results: Medical cocaine use decreased by -62.5% from 2002 to 2017. Hospitals accounted for 84.9% and practitioners for 9.9% of cocaine distribution in 2017. The number of pharmacies carrying cocaine dropped by -69.4%. The percentages of hospitals, practitioners, and pharmacies that carried cocaine in 2017 were 38.4%, 2.3%, and 0.3%, respectively. There was a 7-fold difference in 2002 (South Dakota, 76.1 mg/100 persons; Delaware, 10.1 mg/100 persons). Relative to the average state in 2017, those reporting the highest values (Montana, 20.1; North Dakota, 24.1 mg/100 persons) were significantly elevated. Cocaine use within the Medicare and Medicaid programs was negligible. Cocaine use within the Geisinger system was rare from 2002 to 2007 (<4 orders/100 000 patients per year) but increased to 48.7 in 2018. Conclusion and Relevance: If these pharmacoepidemiological patterns continue, licit cocaine may soon become a historical relic. The pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics education of health care providers may need to be adjusted accordingly.

Conflicts of interest: an invisible force shaping health systems and policies

Conflicts of interest: an invisible force shaping health systems and policies

Use of Immunostimulants for Fish Health Management in Mymensingh District Of Bangladesh

Immunostimulants have been used as a prospective substance against several disease events in aquaculture, although subsequent impact is not clearly explored yet. The present study was conducted to investigate the use of immunostimulants for fish health management in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. Questionnaire survey was performed with a total of 40 fish farmers and 20 chemical and drug retailers. Altogether, 41 immunostimulants under 7 different categories including glucans and polysaccharides, vitamins, minerals, vitamin-mineral premixes, enzymes, nucleic acids and plant extracts were reported. ACI, Eon, Acme, Square, Renata and SK+F were noticed as the prominent sources among 24 listed companies in this study. The most frequently used immunostimulants were recorded as Megavit-aqua (88.75%), Multivitamin (87.5%), Aqua-boost (87.25%), Eskalina (83.25%) and Eon fish grower (82.5%). Farmers in this study mentioned about improved health condition with lower average disease incidence (29.3%) and reduced mortality (65.35%) in fish after application of immunostimulant. The findings of this study will be useful to perform further research regarding the efficacy and impacts of a wide range of immunostimulants used in aquaculture of Bangladesh. SAARC J. Agric., 19(1): 237-248 (2021)

Determinants of drug prices: a systematic review of comparison studies

ObjectiveIn this systematic review on drug price comparison studies, we report on recent determinants of drug prices in a national and international context to facilitate regulation of drug prices by...

No prescription? No problem: drivers of non-prescribed sale of antibiotics among community drug retail outlets in low and middle income countries: a systematic review of qualitative studies

BackgroundNon-prescription dispensing of antibiotics, one of the main sources of antibiotic misuse or over use, is a global challenge with detrimental public health consequences including acceleration of the development of antimicrobial resistance, and is facilitated by various intrinsic and extrinsic drivers. The current review aimed to systematically summarise and synthesise the qualitative literature regarding drivers of non-prescribed sale of antibiotics among community drug retail outlets in low and middle income countries.MethodsFour electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus and Google Scholar) and reference lists of the relevant articles were searched. The Joanna Briggs Institute’s Critical Appraisal Checklist for qualitative studies was used to assess the quality of included studies. The enhancing transparency in reporting the synthesis of qualitative research statement was used to guide reporting of results. Data were coded using NVivo 12 software and analysed using both inductive and deductive thematic analysis.ResultsA total of 23 articles underwent full text review and 12 of these met the inclusion criteria. Four main themes were identified in relation to facilitators of non-prescribed sale of antibiotics among community drug retail outlets: i) the business orientation of community drug retail outlets and tension between professionalism and commercialism; ii) customers’ demand pressure and expectation; iii); absence of or a lax enforcement of regulations; and iv) community drug retail outlet staff’s lack of knowledge and poor attitudes about antibiotics use and scope of practice regarding provision.ConclusionsThis review identified several potentially amendable reasons in relation to over the counter dispensing of antibiotics. To contain the rise of antibiotic misuse or over use by targeting the primary drivers, this review suggests the need for strict law enforcement or enacting new strong regulation to control antibiotic dispensing, continuous and overarching refresher training for community drug retail outlet staff about antibiotic stewardship, and holding public awareness campaigns regarding rational antibiotic use.

Self-medication practice and associated factors among adults in Wolaita Soddo town, Southern Ethiopia

Background: Self-medication is the selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat their self-recognized illnesses or symptoms. Self-medication can decrease costs and enable health professionals to concentrate on more serious health problems.&#x0D; Aim: To assess self-medication practice and associated factors among adults in Wolaita Soddo town, Southern Ethiopia, 2017.&#x0D; Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from September 30 to October 30, 2017. A multi-stage sampling technique of drug retail outlets in Wolaita Soddo town was employed to identify 623 individuals that came to buy drugs in the past three months. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire.&#x0D; Results: About 33.7% of the respondents had practiced self-medication in the past 3 months. Multivariate analysis revealed that female sex (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.22, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.47–3.36), low income (AOR = 3.95, 95% CI: 2.32–6.73) and higher educational level (AOR = 5.79, 95% CI: 2.47–13.58) were the independent factors significantly affecting the practice of self-medication with drugs. Headache/fever (32.4%), respiratory tract infections (31.4%) and gastrointestinal diseases (16.2%) were the most frequently reported illnesses or symptoms of illnesses that prompted self-medication of study participants.&#x0D; Conclusion: Health education campaigns, strict legislations on dispensing drugs from private pharmacies, and improving accessibility and affordability of health care are among the important interventions required to change people’s health-seeking behavior and prevent the potential risks of self-medication.

Comparative analysis of the unregulated sale of antimicrobial prescription medication by drug retailers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Abuja, Nigeria

Background: The sustained high-level unregulated sale of prescription medicines in developing countries is recognized as a significant factor in the development of drug resistance among pathogenic microorganisms. Apart from the millions of deaths annually that are attributed directly to antimicrobial resistance to commonly prescribed medicines this major global public health problem hinders achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by its target of 2030. This study compared the extent of the sale of non-prescribed antimalarial medication and of antibiotics before and during the coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic in each of the six local government areas within the Federal Capital Territory-Abuja, Nigeria. Methods: A structured questionnaire was designed to determine the percentage sales of both antimalarials and antibiotics, without diagnosis or prescription from qualified medical practitioners, over six-month periods between January to June of 2019 and 2020. Results: The data showed that all of the 130 community pharmacies and registered chemist stores where questionnaires were completed engaged in non-prescribed sales of both sets of medicine. Moreover, approximately three-quarters of drug retailers recorded increased patronage in the purchase of both classes of antimicrobial during the 2020 survey period that coincided with the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic.Over successive years this saw an overall rise in over-the-counter sales of antimalarials and antibiotics (each p p <0.001, respectively) recorded significant increases in indiscriminate sales of each medicine. Conclusion: In line with the high frequency of self-medication, this report points to the threat of possible emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant bacterial and Plasmodium spp. in the Abuja region. These findings highlight the imperative requirement for public health policymakers to implement effective strategies to curb the extensive unregulated sale of prescription drugs in the nation’s capital city and likely elsewhere in Nigeria.

Data Pooling in Stochastic Optimization

Managing large-scale systems often involves simultaneously solving thousands of unrelated stochastic optimization problems, each with limited data. Intuition suggests that one can decouple these unrelated problems and solve them separately without loss of generality. We propose a novel data-pooling algorithm called Shrunken-SAA that disproves this intuition. In particular, we prove that combining data across problems can outperform decoupling, even when there is no a priori structure linking the problems and data are drawn independently. Our approach does not require strong distributional assumptions and applies to constrained, possibly nonconvex, nonsmooth optimization problems such as vehicle-routing, economic lot-sizing, or facility location. We compare and contrast our results to a similar phenomenon in statistics (Stein’s phenomenon), highlighting unique features that arise in the optimization setting that are not present in estimation. We further prove that, as the number of problems grows large, Shrunken-SAA learns if pooling can improve upon decoupling and the optimal amount to pool, even if the average amount of data per problem is fixed and bounded. Importantly, we highlight a simple intuition based on stability that highlights when and why data pooling offers a benefit, elucidating this perhaps surprising phenomenon. This intuition further suggests that data pooling offers the most benefits when there are many problems, each of which has a small amount of relevant data. Finally, we demonstrate the practical benefits of data pooling using real data from a chain of retail drug stores in the context of inventory management. This paper was accepted by Chung Piaw Teo, Management Science Special Section on Data-Driven Prescriptive Analytics.

Opioids and Injury Deaths: A population-based analysis of the United States from 2006 to 2017

IntroductionIn the United States, the opioid epidemic claims over 130 lives per day due to overdoses. While the use of opioids in trauma patients has been well-described in the literature, it is unknown whether prescription opioid use is associated with mortality after trauma. We hypothesized that legally obtained prescription opioid consumption would be positively associated with injury-related deaths in the United States. MethodsCross-sectional time-series data was compiled using state-level mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Multiple Causes of Death database and prescription opioid shipping data to each state using the US Department of Justice Automated Reports and Consolidated Ordering System Retail Drug Summary reports from 2006 to 2017, with opioids shipped used as a proxy for local opioid consumption. Oxycodone and hydrocodone amounts were converted to morphine equivalent doses (MEDs). Our primary outcome was an association between MEDs and injury mortality rates at the state-level. We analyzed total injury-related deaths and subgroups of unintentional deaths, suicides, and homicides. We modeled the data using fixed effects regression to reduce bias from unmeasured differences between states. ResultsData were available for all states and the District of Columbia. Opioid deliveries increased through 2012 and then declined. Total injury-related mortalities have been increasing steadily since 2012. Opioid MEDs did not show a consistent or statistically significant relationship with injury-related mortality, including with any subgroups of unintentional deaths, suicides, and homicides. ConclusionIn every state examined, there was no consistent relationship between the amount of prescription opioids delivered and total injury-related mortality or any subgroups, suggesting that there is not a direct association between prescription opioids and injury-related mortality. This is the first study to combine national mortality and opioid data to investigate the relationship between legally obtained opioids and injury-related mortality. The US opioid epidemic remains a significant challenge that requires ongoing attention from all stakeholders in our medical and public health systems.

History taking and response to an adult diarrheal case among community drug retail outlets in Gondar town, north-west Ethiopia: a simulated-client survey

BackgroundSelf-care is one of the growing tasks of community pharmacy professionals. They are highly engaged in consultations in response to specific drug request (product-based presentation) or symptoms clients describe (symptom-based presentation).PurposeThis study was aimed at assessing the appropriateness of patient assessment and response to an adult diarrheal case among community drug retail outlets in Gondar town, north-west Ethiopia.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study design based on simulated-client method of visit was conducted from 03 August to 21 September, 2020. An adult female diarrheal case scenario was developed and used to guide data collectors to interact with professionals in a standardized and consistent way. All 60 dispensaries in the town during the data collection were included in the study. A pretested data collection tool was used to record the conversation between simulated clients and providers. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.ResultsWith regard to patient history, age of the patient, whether diarrhea is watery or bloody and onset and duration of diarrhea were the three most commonly requested questions with 59 (98.3%), 55 (91.7%) and 46 (76.7%), respectively. Past-medical and medication history are enquired in none of the visits. Medication was dispensed in 57 (95%) of the visits and no referral to a health facility was recommended in majority (90%) of cases. The most commonly recommended medications were ciprofloxacin 30 (52.6%) and metronidazole 20 (35.1%). ORS was considered in only 6 (10.5%) dispensaries.ConclusionPatient assessment, final decisions and treatment recommendations for an adult diarrheal case are inadequate, irrational and illegal. Educational interventions coupled with incentive mechanisms for cognitive pharmaceutical service and strict regulatory enforcement are needed to reduce the problem.

National Health Insurance Fund\u2019s relationship to retail drug outlets: a Tanzania case study

BackgroundAchieving universal health coverage will require robust private sector engagement; however, as many low- and middle-income countries launch prepayment schemes to achieve universal health coverage, few are covering products from retail drug outlets (pharmacies and drug shops). This case study aims to characterize barriers and facilitators related to incorporating retail drug outlets into national prepayment schemes based on the experience of the Tanzanian National Health Insurance Fund’s (NHIF) certification of pharmacies and accredited drug dispensing outlets.MethodsWe reviewed government documents and interviewed 26 key informants including retail outlet owners and dispensers and central and district government authorities representing eight districts overall. Topics included awareness of NHIF in the community, access to medicines, claims processing, reimbursement prices, and how the NHIF/retail outlet linkage could be improved.ResultsImportant enablers for NHIF/retail outlet engagement include widespread awareness of NHIF in the community, NHIF’s straightforward certification process, and their reimbursement speed. All of the retail respondents felt that NHIF helps their business and their clients to some degree. As for barriers, retailers thought that NHIF needed to provide more information to them and to its members, particularly regarding coverage changes. Some retailers and government officials thought that the product reimbursement prices were below market and not adjusted often enough, and pharmacy respondents were unhappy about claim rejections for what they felt were insignificant issues. All interviewees agreed that one of the biggest problems is poor prescribing practices in public health facilities. They reiterated that prescribers need more supervision to improve their practices, particularly to ensure adherence to standard treatment guidelines, which NHIF requires for approving a claim. In addition, if a prescription has any problem, including a wrong date or no signature, the client must return to the health facility to get it corrected or pay out-of-pocket, which is burdensome.ConclusionsLittle published information is available on the relationship between health insurance plans and retail providers in low- and middle-income countries. This case study provides insights that countries can use when designing ways to include retail outlets in their health insurance schemes.

Self-Medication Practice and Associated Factors Among Health Care Professionals at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia.

IntroductionDespite self-medication empowers patients in making decisions about the management of minor illnesses independently, the prevalence among health care professionals has sharply increased throughout the world. Self-medication has negative consequences on both the health care professionals themselves and health care delivery. Hence, this study assessed self-medication practices and associated factors among health care professionals at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital.MethodsA facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured questionnaire among health care professionals working at Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from October 10 to 25, 2020. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select 227 study participants. Multivariate logistic regression was computed using the statistical package for social sciences version 20 and variables with a p-value less than 0.05 were taken as statistically significant. Results were presented in the form of tables and graphs.ResultsAmong 227 health professional, 164 (72.2%; 95% CI: 66.0%, 77.7%) practiced self-medication. Of these, 107 (65.2%; 95% CI: 57.3%, 71.8%) stated the negative consequence of self-medication. Drug resistance 96 (89.7%) and adverse drug reaction 95 (88.8%) were reported as a consequence. The predictor of self-medication among health professionals was the pharmacy profession (AOR: 11.88, 95% CI (1.38–102.38)). The most common disease conditions for practicing self-medication were headache 153 (93.3%), respiratory tract infection 116 (70.7%) and gastrointestinal symptoms 103 (62.8%). Pain killers 154 (93.9%), antibiotics 122 (74.4%), and antacid 101 (61.6%) were frequently used for self-medication and health professionals got the medicines from drug retail shops 130 (79.3%) and workplace 104 (63.4%). Mild disease condition 128 (78%), time-saving 124 (75.6%), and accessibility 97 (59.1%) were the reasons for self-medication.ConclusionMore than two-thirds of health professionals practiced self-medication and reported the negative consequence of self-medication. The predictor of self-medication was the pharmacy profession. The provision of appropriate health education was recommended for promoting rational medication use.

The embodiment of wastewater data for the estimation of illicit drug consumption in Spain

Data obtained from wastewater analysis can provide rapid and complementary insights in illicit drug consumption at community level. Within Europe, Spain is an important country of transit of both cocaine and cannabis. The quantity of seized drugs and prevalence of their use rank Spain at the top of Europe. Hence, the implementation of a wastewater monitoring program at national level would help to get better understanding of spatial differences and trends in use of illicit drugs. In this study, a national wastewater campaign was performed for the first time to get more insight on the consumption of illicit drugs within Spain. The 13 Spanish cities monitored cover approximately 6 million inhabitants (12.8% of the Spanish population). Untreated wastewater samples were analyzed for urinary biomarkers of amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, and cannabis. In addition, weekend samples were monitored for 17 new psychoactive substances. Cannabis and cocaine are the most consumed drugs in Spain, but geographical variations showed, for instance, comparatively higher levels of methamphetamine in Barcelona and amphetamine in Bilbao, with about 1-fold higher consumption of these two substances in such metropolitan areas. For amphetamine, an enantiomeric profiling was performed in order to assure the results were due to consumption and not to illegal dumping of production residues. Furthermore, different correction factors for the excretion of cannabis were used to compare consumption estimations. All wastewater results were compared with previously reported data, national seizure data and general population survey data, were a reasonable agreement was found. Daily and yearly drug consumption were extrapolated to the entire Spanish population with due precautions because of the uncertainty associated. These data was further used to estimate the retail drug market, where for instance cocaine illicit consumption alone was calculated to contribute to 0.2–0.5% of the Spanish gross domestic product (ca. 3000–6000 million Euro/year).

Extrapolating the weight of a homogeneous retail drug seizure using packing weight

Abstract We propose a method that yields a probability distribution for the net weight of drug powder resulting from a seizure of stamp bags. The technique involves the posterior predictive distribution of a beta distribution under a conjugate prior. The convolution of two distributions is computed for two visually distinct groups of stamp bags from the same seizure.