Pharmacists’ Syndicate candidate, Joe Salloum, on Friday announced that the main reason behind the general strike carried out today by Lebanon’s pharmacies is to maintain the safety and the security of pharmacists.

“We refuse pharmacists being exposed to various types of threats from citizens assuming pharmacists are storing medicine and are not selling it to them, so the first reason behind this strike is to preserve their safety and security,” Salloum told Russian Interfax.

“The second reason is the non-issuance of the list of subsidized and unsupported medicines, and thus the return of medicine to pharmacies,” he said.

Salloum warned that there are no medicines in pharmacies, and medicines supported by citizens' pockets are found on the black market and outside the Lebanese borders.

"Anyone who delays issuing regulations and the lack of medicines due to smuggling and the black market is responsible for stealing the citizen and the pharmacists’ safety,” he concluded.