Czechs Flooding Polish Pharmacies to Acquire Pseudoephedrine Drugs

24. 2. 2010

Czechs are even more often buying at Polish pharmacies, even if it is more expensive. That has been happening because it is still possible to buy certain pills that contain the pseudoephedrine needed to produce some narcotics, pills which can be bought in the Czech Republic only with a doctor's prescription, Ewa Furtak wrote for newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. The news first appeared on Głos Ludu, a Polish publication in Czech Republic and with reference to the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza also daily newspaper Britské listy.

Reporter Danut Chlup wanted to buy in Poland's Tesine the medicine Ibuprom, but in the end it she could not buy it in the quantity she wished. Behind this limitation are Czech ephedrine-based drug users. Or the pharmacist registers the name of the buyer, in case of abnormal cases. In Poland, though, all those medicines are at the free disposal of all interested.

Only in the Silesia region the amount of pseudoephedrine medicine sold in 2009 in comparison with the previous year went up by hundreds of thousands. The sales rocketed especially in pharmacies near the border. Polish authorities cannot set up any special measures against it - not even forbid the sale of formulas or I.D. check those Czechs attempting to buy such drugs or inform the Czech police. Pharmacists are saying that these "turists" buy ten or more packs of medicine containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmacies started a policy of selling a maximum of two packs per person, but those interested in getting the drug simply go from one store to another to pile up the wanted quantities needed to produce their narcotic.

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Obsah vydání | Pátek 26.2. 2010