CYPRIOTS are not in the habit of abusing prescription and counterfeit drugs, Health Minister Charis Charalambous said yesterday.

“Prescription drugs can only be obtained with a doctor’s prescription,” he said.

Charalambous was speaking to the Sunday Mail following last week’s publication of the International Narcotics Control Board’s (INCB) annual report, which warned that prescription drug abuse, including pain killers, stimulants, sedatives, and tranquillisers, was set to exceed illicit drug abuse.

The Board added that medication containing narcotic drugs and/or psychotropic substances was even a drug of first choice in many cases, and not abused as a substitute.

“Unless someone can find a doctor willing to write them a prescription for these kinds of drugs there is no way a person can just walk into a pharmacy and buy them,” Charalambous said.

The minister said pharmacies were subject to very strict controls and that Health Ministry inspectors frequently checked that prescription drug sales matched prescriptions.

Asked whether there was any way to determine whether doctors abused the system and prescribed drugs for acquaintances, he said one had to trust that doctors were ethical.

“These kinds of drugs are not often prescribed anyway,” Charalambous added.

According to the INCB the abuse of prescription drugs has already surpassed abuse of traditional illicit drugs in some parts of the world.

In the United States, the abuse rate is higher than that of drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. In fact, the report said the number of Americans who abuse controlled prescription drugs nearly doubled from 7.8 million to 15.1 million from 1992 to 2003.

Parts of Africa, South Asia and Europe are also facing this problem, the report said.
The demand for these drugs is so high, that it is said to have given rise to the problem of counterfeit products and their purchase over the internet.

What abusers did not realise was that abuse of prescription drugs could be more risky than the abuse of illicitly manufactured drugs, with a higher overdose risk due to their very high potency, the INCB said.

Charalambous said thankfully Cypriot consumers had not yet become accustomed to purchasing their drugs over the web.

“A couple of months ago the ministry assessed the situation and found it was not common practice here,” he said.

Nevertheless, he said consumers were advised not to take up the habit, as it was very dangerous.

“We want people to follow the traditional method of acquiring prescription drugs: from the doctor, to the pharmacy, to the patient. We do not want people just going on to the internet and ordering whatever drug they fancy willy nilly,” he said.