Prague, Feb 15 (CTK) – The Czech government decided on Wednesday to extend the list of addictive substances by 63 new ones which can be abused for drug production, its spokesman Martin Ayrer has tweeted.
One of the medicines is the weight-loss Adipex retard, which is available on prescription. However, it contains the addictive substance fentermin and is abused as a drug.
An increased demand for it has been registered in border areas from where it is exported to the neighbouring countries.
The decision to tighten the handling of fentermin, which only Adipex retard contains on the Czech market, is based on the findings of the State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL) and the national anti-drug centre on the use of the substance.
The report says a number of prescriptions for the medicine are forged.
The government decree regulates the handling of 63 medicines. Most of the substances concerned are used neither in industry nor in therapy. Only their abuse as illegal drugs is known.
“In addition to the primary goal, which is mainly the protection of health of the Czech Republic’s inhabitants from the undesirable effects of new substances and the prevention of the massive spread of these new substances on the illegal market, the measure also has a secondary effect. It is the fact that the Czech Republic will not be a legal entry for these substances to the common European market,” the document the government approved says.
Most of these substances are imported to the EU via a country where their handling is not regulated. Then, it is no longer possible to prevent their spread across the Union.
