It is an illegal practice. However, 70% of Parisian pharmacies refuse to deliver substitutes, prescribed by doctors, to treat drug addicts. A practice strongly criticized by the College of Pharmacists.
A new treatment, developed by US researchers, could help reverse the chemical imbalances caused in the brain by habitual drug use. While waiting for this drug to confirm its benefits, drug addicts who wish to treat their addiction are prescribed substitutes by doctors.
70% of 115 Parisian pharmacies tested are concerned
But according to a test, carried out by the Association of drug users (Asud) in August in Paris with 115 pharmacies, to which had access The Parisian70% of pharmacies in the capital refuse to deliver these substitutes to drug addicts, in particular methadone or Subutex.
“If I didn’t have it, I might be dead. Like almost all my friends,” says Joël, 53 and a heroin addict. “The pharmacist always tells me: No, I don’t have this product. Without further explanation”.
Today, thanks to the substitute that he gets miles away in a pharmacy that agrees to sell him, Joël has been able to get out of his addiction. “It was my whole life, there was nothing else,” he admits. “Years wasted, stealing, going to prison.” Today, he only takes 10 mg of methadone per day, compared to 120 mg at the beginning. “Almost nothing, one capsule out of habit,” he says.
terrified pharmacists
Among these outlaw pharmacies, three have outright announced their refusal to sell these substitutes on their windows. “There was a traffic of false prescriptions”, assures a pharmacist of one of these signs, on condition of anonymity. “We were invaded by thugs. So we put this message, which made it possible to clean up the clientele. But afterwards, we should have removed it. It’s true that it was clumsy.” Three complaints have been filed by an addictology care center against these pharmacies which display on their windows their refusal to deliver Subutex.
A pharmacist, who will have to explain herself to the Disciplinary Council of the Order, justifies this practice by the fear instilled by those who come to seek these substitutes, sometimes via false prescriptions. “I recognize that I made a serious mistake, that it is against the code of ethics. But I was afraid. When we refuse to dispense Subutex because we realize that we are being presented with a false prescription , how many times we hear ourselves say: “I am going to cut the throat of you and your children.”
“We don’t have to choose our customers”
For the president of Asud, Fabrice Olivet, pharmacists “have remembered the great robberies of the 1980s by heroin addicts”. An image that would explain why these professionals refuse to “give drugs to addicts”, he adds.
These refusals lead to longer and longer queues in pharmacies that agree to supply these substitutes. “Everyone must play the game”, insists Fabrice Olivet. “Anyway, it’s the law. The risk is also that people who need it buy these products on the street from dealers.” Finally, Martial Fraysse, the president of the Ile-de-France Order of Pharmacists, agrees and explains “that we do not have to choose our customers”.
.
