YUGOSLAVIA: In a decade of chaos, war and impoverishment, nobody had a word to say against tranquillisers. But now the stress has eased, Serbs are being urged to break their heavy-duty pill habit.
From now on, over-the-counter sales are not permitted, newspapers announced yesterday. Diazepam and all related stress-relievers will require a doctor's prescription.
The country mellowed out last year with the help of 144 million little pills, a consumption rate that alarmed the health authorities of the reformist government. "It looked like the entire nation was high on drugs," acting federal health secretary Mr Milos Knezevic was quoted as saying in the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti. "We have decided to bring the situation under control," he told the newspaper.
He said authorities decided to tighten up earlier this month after reviewing the official statistics.
"The records show that last year we sold 41 million tablets of Bensedin, 63 million of Bromazepam and 40 million pills of Diazepam," Mr Knezevic said.
National dailies warned readers that kicking the habit would be uncomfortable.
"These drugs can cause addiction in less than three months. It takes more than two or three months to drop the habit under constant medical supervision," psychiatrist Jovan Maric told Glas Javnosti.
Bensedin was the drug of choice among Serbian pensioners, who reached for the pills when state banks under the control of former president Mr Slobodan Milosevic confiscated their life savings and the state defaulted on their pensions.
"Everyone could get as much of these drugs as he liked and doctors were easy on prescribing them," said the head of the Hospital for Addiction Treatment, Ms Julijana Puric-Pejakovic.
"That's why I see the administration's move as a very good one," she said.- (Reuters)