Sanctions on using psychotropic drugs become stricter

"Sale of psychotropic medications without a written perscription will become illegal, announced Georgian Minister of Interior Affairs Aleksandre Chikaidze after the government meeting.

Today ministers discussed a parliament bill that will impose strict sanctions against pharmacies selling psychotropic drugs without prescriptions. According to the initiative of Chikaidze, on the first time, the owner of the pharmacy will be prosecuted and the pharmacy will be deprived of the right to sell medication for a minimum of 10 years.

The bill was developed by the Ministry of Interior Affairs and the Ministry of Healthcare and aims to eliminate the redundant illegal use of psychotropic and hand-made drugs.

A joint inspection of the two ministries from October 16 to December 27 revealed that 3,444,946 Form N2 combined drugs, that contain codeine, were sold illegally, without prescription. This number is 99.99% of the full amount of drugs containing codeine sold by pharmacies at that period of time.

"Im hoping for the support of the society, as we are dealing with tremendous scale of drug-use, - Chikaidze stated.

Minister of Healthcare David Sergeenko also commented on the new initiative.

"The pharmaceutical drug-abuse situation can be evaluated as catastrophic and extremely concerning, commented Sergeenko.

According to him, chemical drugs have become so cheap and accessible that their use has a massive character.