Quotas on psychotropic drug import
By Tea Mariamidze
Thursday, April 13
Georgia’s Minister of Labor, Health and Social affairs Davit Sergeenko and the Minister of Internal Affairs (MIA) Giorgi Mghebrishvili signed an agreement about imposing quotas on psychotropic drug imports on Wednesday.
The Health Ministry stated that quotas will be imposed on six medicaments: Gabapentin, Baklopen, Zopiklon, Zaleplon, Dextromethorphan and Tropikamid.
The main aim of the establishment of the quotas on the import of psychotropic pharmaceutical products in the country is to reduce their inappropriate usage.
The Health Minister said that recently, a number of preventive measures have been implemented in order to restrict pharmaceutical drug addiction.
Sergeenko added that the main challenge today in the country is the tablet form of pharmaceutical drug addiction.
The Minister underlined that in order to determine the necessary number of psychotropic pharmaceutical products, a special joint commission of the Interior and Health Ministries was established last year, which set the necessary limit of import of such medicines.
“I think that this will be one step forward to fighting pharmaceutical drug addiction and I would like to thank the Interior Minister and the MIA for their cooperation,” Sergeenko said.
Interior Minister said that pharmaceutical drug addiction is a problem not only in Georgia but in other countries as well.
“The MIA and the Health Ministry have implemented various measures that helped reduce pharmaceutical drug addiction,” Mgebrishvili said.
Sergeenko and Mgebrishvili are co-chairs of a special commission which has the authority to assemble at any time and increase the psychotropic drugs quota.
