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E-DRUG: Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol (R) ) Abuse Potential
Sitting in Tirana, Albania without access to all details from our own
situation
in Norway and to the information I had collected about it from other
countries,
I can only make a few brief comments, hoping that other E-druggers will add
more. May be Charles Medawar from Social Audit could contribute?
Flunitrazepam is the tranquillizer/hypnotic which is most often used by drug
addicts in many countries, including Norway and probably involved in the
activities you mention. As Beverley mentioned from Australia, it is sold on
the
street and used alone or in combination with narcotics. The manufacturer of
the
brand name product, Roche, has already changed the composition of the tablet
in
many countries, to make it more difficult to make it into an injection. But
in
Norway generic products remain the same. In some countries flunitrazepam has
been reclassified as a narcotic in order to make it less obtainable. It has
been done in Sweden and is under consideration in Norway.
I think there is no reason why the drug should be on the market in the first
place as there is no reason why flunitrazepam should be preferred to other
hypnotics, although removing one might just move the problem to another
product
in the same therapeutic class.
Regards
Kirsten Myhr, MScPharm, MPH
Bygdoy alle 58B
0265 Oslo, Norway
Tel: +47 22 56 05 85
myhr@online.no
Temporary address:
WHO office, Tirana, Albania
Tel: +355 42 72522 or +355 42 72522
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