Up to 80% of pseudoephedrine containing medicines available without prescription in the Czech Republic allegedly are used not for treatment but for pervitin production. The social damage and economic losses caused by drugs abuse are far higher than tax revenues from the sale of these medicines, and we probably are not interested in having the reputation of Europe’s pervitin factory either. So when MPs approved a bill restricting the dispensing of pseudoephedrine medicines on prescription, a measure applied to thousands other potentially dangerous medicines, it was a logical step. It is an efficient, simple and time-tested measure that does not require any special expenses.
I do not assume that the deputies who voted against the bill in the end would promote the interests of drug dealers. They were probably just enchanted by the charm of pharmaceutical companies. There is a ban on advertising of prescription-only medicines, with the exception of professional medical articles. And of course, the sale of such medicines will decrease when there is no advertising. And if pseudoephedrine does not serve drug users, the sales decline in these companies will be even more significant.
It is not true that all people who prefer self-treatment of respiratory diseases would have to go to the doctor for prescription after the law takes effect. Medicines with pseudoephedrine content do not treat, but only moderate symptoms. If these medicines are only available on prescription, decent people will still be able to buy other types of “flu medicines” without prescription.
Pharmaceuticals producers can also adopt to the new situation by substituting the risky pseudoephedrine let’s say with phenylephrine that has similar effects but is not suitable for pervitin production. In New Zealand, the change proved successful.
There is probably no other place with as big popularity of pervitin among drug users as in the Czech Republic, but pseudoephedrine still belongs to forbidden substances for instance in the Netherlands and in Finland. Pseudoephedrine containing medicines are still available without prescription for instance in Slovakia, Poland, Austria and France, but the question is how long.
Great Britain has opted for a nonstandard control method, with sale limited to one package, but with no central records. So there is nothing to prevent people from buying the medicines in different pharmacies and getting as much pseudoephedrine as they need. Similarly, dispensing a maximum of two packages of these medicines to people who present their ID or health insurance card would not work in the Czech Republic either.
The Health Ministry and the ministry-controlled State Institute for Drug Control want to replace the standard registry of prescriptions with a so-called central data depository, in other words, a “Big Brother” that will check and record what medicines each of us takes. Reservations by lawyers dealing with personal data protection against this spying system are so fundamental that one cannot be surprised that pharmacies are refusing to obey a bad law and to send sensitive personal data about citizens over the internet. For the system to work, the system would have to be available online to employees of all pharmacies…
Nobody is against an anonymous monitoring of medicines consumption, of their prices and of the occurrence of unwanted effects. But unless data protection is secured and unless there is a guarantee that such a sensitive database is not available to employers, banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and firms selling various kinds of goods, the so-called central data depository means an unacceptable breach of medical secrecy.
If politicians really wanted to curb the abuse of pseudoephedrine containing medicines for pervitin production, then they should have forgotten about electronic spying and should use standard methods to restrict their dispensing on prescription, the misuse and counterfeiting of which is illegal.
However, the opposite has happened. Pharmaceutical companies are apparently stronger than doctors.
The author is the president of the Czech Medical Chamber
