Drug abuse is rising steadily

Berlin - More and more people are using drugs such as dextromethorphan, tilidine or tramadol, which are found in conventional painkillers and cough medicines, as a replacement drug. According to experts, they can get the drugs on normal but also forged prescriptions, the parallel exploration of several doctors, Internet commerce, or the black market.

"On the Internet you get everything you want to get," says Gerd Glaeske drug researchers from the University of Bremen. Prescription drugs could be purchased there without problems. According Glaeske there are drug addicts in Germany up to 1.9 million. He expected a much higher number of unreported cases. "We must investigate the dangers of the Internet specifically," calls the pharmaceutical scientists.

For years, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) to a recent study found that a constant increase in crime after the Medicines Act. According to the BKA is "a trend toward a growing phenomenon," which can be substantiated with detailed data difficult. There was a lack of information, law enforcement authorities and the pharmaceutical industry. Also be the clues that they had often not meaningful.

The central industrial property office of Customs faced in recent years, certain claims to increasingly more medicines. In 2006, the value of the drugs was 2.5 million euros for the first time and was listed by the extra inches. Particularly on the Internet according to estimates by the BKA took to the offenses. This was due to the simple relation of the desired drug, the existing market demand and the high profit potential. Therefore it is necessary, according to BKA study, to accompany the trade in prescription drugs over the Internet with controls and trade restrictions to consider.

A high dependence potential involves the opiate Tilidine. According to the Berlin police say, 80 percent of all prescription counterfeiting concern in the capital Tilidine. The State Criminal Police Office has in the past year, about 1,800 fake prescriptions safe in Berlin. Tilidine leads, according to a police spokesman, among other things to spiritual indifference. It lower the threshold for violence and had been in some cases the injury was detected on the perpetrators. "The pharmacists are now very critical, and the recipes look very closely," says the head of the Drug Commission of the German pharmacist in Eschborn, Thomas Beck. But on the Internet, could easily obtain drugs and medications.

The Federal Chamber of Physicians has published a guide for physicians in the summer. This provides practical help to control their behavior and how to deal with prescription drug addicts.