PHA-Exchange> GEN: Prescription Abuse to Pass Illicit Drugs, Group Says

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1595008,00.html

Prescription Abuse to Pass Illicit Drugs, Group Says
Thursday, Mar. 01, 2007 By AP/WILLIAM J. KOLE

VIENNA, Austria — Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of 
illicit street narcotics
worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit 
painkillers, sedatives and
other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday.

Prescription drug abuse already has outstripped traditional illegal drugs 
such as heroin, cocaine
and Ecstasy in parts of Europe, Africa and South Asia, the U.N.-affiliated 
International Narcotics
Control Board said in its annual report for 2006.

In the United States alone, the abuse of painkillers, stimulants, 
tranquilizers and other
prescription medications has gone beyond "practically all illicit drugs with 
the exception of
cannabis," with users increasingly turning to them first, the Vienna-based 
group said.

Unregulated markets in many countries make it easy for traffickers to peddle 
a wide variety of
counterfeit drugs using courier services, the mail and the Internet.

Discount medications that seem to be authentic often turn out to be powerful 
knockoffs concocted
from recipes posted on the Web.

Up to 50 percent of all drugs taken in developing countries are believed to 
be counterfeit.

Exact figures are unavailable because few countries "are aware to what 
extent drugs are
being diverted and abused" and are not tracking the trend. Nations should 
pay closer attention and
share data on counterfeit drug seizures.