See if this sounds familiar: you walk into a pharmacy hoping to buy a cheap but effective drug, only to walk out moments later with a bag of pricey medicines you were badgered into buying.

This experience is one that has sadly become all-too-common as low-rent druggists collude with drug manufacturers to pawn off unneeded, and occasionally fake, drugs on consumers.

To combat such practices, officials need to get tough with pharmacies that wander off the straight-and-narrow. Authorities can start by revoking the business licenses of stores that abuse customers' trust.

The government should also step in and put ceilings on drug prices. And to stop stores from coercing shoppers into splurging on unnecessary medicines, authorities should provide tax relief to druggist which promote inexpensive generic drugs.

Of course, this doesn't mean that consumers should be let off the hook completely. Shoppers need to become more rational and realize that higher prices don't necessarily mean higher quality.

The author is Du Haitao, a commentator.

Source: People's Daily