April 13, 2023
On March 30, a meeting of the Expert Council on Legal Drug Circulation was held in the premises of FSUE Endopharm on 25, Novokhokhlovskaya str.
Permanent members of the Expert Council, representatives of the UN INCB, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and invited experts attended the event.
The discussion of the results of the 66th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs held in Vienna (Austria) on March 13-17, 2023 was one of the topics on the agenda of the meeting. Dmitry Subbotin, Deputy Director of the Department for New Challenges and Threats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, spoke about the participation of the Russian interdepartmental delegation at the session events, about the views of representatives of a number of countries on the issues under discussion, as well as about a consistently defended position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia on the need to strengthen the international drug control system based on three UN anti-drug conventions, and the inadmissibility of any form of drug legalization in violation of international legal obligations assumed by the states.
The speaker especially noted the systematic work carried out by the Russian Federation to increase the availability of narcotic drugs for medical use and stressed that this area is one of the priorities for Russian healthcare. The range of domestic medicines in non-invasive forms has been significantly expanded, including the “gold standard” of pain relief – morphine in a wide range of dosage forms and dosages. In each region of the country, a system of administration of all stages of the provision of palliative care has been built.
Galina Korchagina, a member of the UN INCB, Deputy Director of the National Scientific Center for Narcology – a branch of the Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Neurology (Serbsky NMIC PN) of the Ministry of Health of Russia, made a report on topical problems of the availability of narcotic analgesics for medical use based on the materials of the UN INCB Annual Report for 2022.
The report notes that significant differences remain between countries in the volumes of consumption of opioid analgesics for pain relief. Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand hold almost total volume of consumption. For example, morphine consumption is distributed between the United States – 33.4%, Europe – 39.4%, Australia and New Zealand – 7.7%, Canada – 4.5%, and other countries take 14.8%, in which 83% of the population is concentrated.
Consumption volumes in other regions are often insufficient to meet the medical needs of the population. These regional disparities are not due to a shortage of opiate raw materials. Supply is more than sufficient to meet the demand reported by governments to INCB, but it is clear that many countries misrepresent the real health needs of the population when reporting demand, resulting in mismatches in the availability of medicines.
The statistics are significantly distorted due to that narcotic analgesics (methadone) used in so-called “substitution therapy” programs are included in general indices. Therefore, for a correct assessment, it is important to separate the information on the use of narcotic drugs in medical practice and “substitution therapy” programs provided by states to the INCB.
Russia has achieved success in organizing the production of domestic narcotic analgesics for medical use, which causes an objective need to improve the level of training of medical personnel in working with this category of drugs.
The participants paid special attention to the points of the Protocol of the meeting of the Council on guardianship in the social sphere under the Government of the Russian Federation, “On an integrated approach and improvement of measures aimed at preventing and reducing the use of psychoactive substances by minors and youth” dd. December 9, 2022 No. 7, the implementation of which was entrusted to the Expert Council.
Council members discussed the need to study the issue of developing medicines that are antagonists of cannabinoid receptors, so as to use them in the treatment of drug addiction.
According to the results of the meeting, working groups were created to work out issues within the framework of preparing and holding a round table of the Council on guardianship in the social sphere under the Government of the Russian Federation on the topic: “On the implementation of the Council instructions on an integrated approach and improving measures aimed at preventing and reducing the consumption of psychoactive substances by minors and youth”:
- to create a unified all-Russian register of social rehabilitation centers for drug addicts, and elaborate the principles and criteria for including social rehabilitation centers in this register;
- to verify anti-drug content intended for publication in the media;
- to amend the legislation in terms of providing medical care to persons suffering from diseases associated with the use of psychoactive substances, including the provision of medical services by private medical organizations in the context of the abolition of anonymity in the treatment of people with drug addiction.
The participants of the event identified the need to further expand the scope of activity of the Expert Council in a number of areas and inform the executive authorities in all regions of the country. They emphasized the importance of creating a column of historical materials on aspects of the psychoactive substances circulation on the website of the Expert Council. The archive of the Standing Committee on Drug Control should be the main source of information. Eduard Armenakovich Babayan was its permanent leader since 1963: an outstanding Soviet and Russian scientist, Professor, Doctor of Medicine, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, Leading Narcologist of Russia; he made an invaluable contribution to the development of the NDPS control and classification system.
In conclusion, the Council members noted the need to use the potential of the Expert Council to present the position of the Russian Federation on topical issues of circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors at specialized international organizations.
Tatyana Klimenko, Director of the National Scientific Center of Narcology – a branch of FSBI “Serbsky NMIC PN” of the Ministry of Health of Russia, and Evgeny Krupitsky, Deputy Director for Research of FSBI “National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Neurology named after V.M. Bekhterev” of the Ministry of Health of Russia, Director of the Institute of Pharmacology named after A.V. Valdman under the Pavlov FSBEI HE First St. Petersburg State Medical University, were elected as Deputies Chairman of the Expert Council.
Also, a new permanent member was unanimously included in the Expert Council – Elena Demenko, a head of the Center for Prevention of Addictive Behavior (branch) of the Moscow Scientific and Practical Center for Narcology of the Moscow City Health Department.
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