Sale of painkiller to be restricted amid teen craze
By PIYANUCH THAMNUKASETCHAI, 
PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION

 

 

BANGKOK: -- TOUGHER restrictions will be imposed on the sale of the painkiller tramadol to tackle drug misuse among teenagers, a director of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) said yesterday.

 

TOUGHER restrictions will be imposed on the sale of the painkiller tramadol to tackle drug misuse among teenagers, a director of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) said yesterday.

 

Tramadol misuse and addiction among teenagers had been evident in Thailand since 2013.

 

 Kanyanan Kongpatnitiroj, the ONCB Narcotics Analysis and Technical Service Institute director, warned that overuse can lead to serious side effects and withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, seizures and coma. 

 

Now the board will limit the number of pills that pharmacies can sell at any one time to 10.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30302614

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-12-22

 

RELATED TOPIC:

A girl has gone online to warn people about habitual use of the pain killer Tramadol 
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/959664-a-girl-has-gone-online-to-warn-people-about-habitual-use-of-the-pain-killer-tramadol/ 

So what's next? ban the sale of day everything just because of one deranged

person has misused them? do you ban the sale of kitchen knives when some

crazed people use them to stab other people?

as was said before, logic, common sense and lateral thinking not

the strongest suit of the policy makers in this county....

 

A sensible move, pharmacies n the UK cannot sell more than a minimal amount of paracetamol/codeine at one time, for the same reasons.

 

AND, the sale of kitchen knives to younger people is banned!

<deleted>!!

For <deleted> sake what the hell

Seems to be a trend.  Australia will ban the sale of any OTC analgesic containing codeine from the start of 2018. Only available after that date by doctors prescription.

Which means elderly ladies waiting for 2 or 4 years for hip replacement surgery in Australia and who are in constant pain must visit the doctor every 5 days an extra $37 from the government to the doctors pocket plus some from the patient ad probably about $30 in Medicare administration charges.  Plus about a $10 professional fee per item for the pharmacist.

A lot more than the $5 it would cost otherse 

33 minutes ago, chiang mai said:

A sensible move, pharmacies n the UK cannot sell more than a minimal amount of paracetamol/codeine at one time, for the same reasons.

 

AND, the sale of kitchen knives to younger people is banned!

tell mom n  pop

5 minutes ago, kannot said:

tell mom n  pop

 

My post was about the UK, not Thailand.

29 minutes ago, harrry said:

Which means elderly ladies waiting for 2 or 4 years for hip replacement surgery in Australia and who are in constant pain must visit the doctor every 5 days an extra $37 from the government to the doctors pocket plus some from the patient ad probably about $30 in Medicare administration charges.  Plus about a $10 professional fee per item for the pharmacist.

A lot more than the $5 it would cost otherse 

Elderly people mostly have a Health Care Card (only the wealthy don't) and these people are bulk-billed by their doctor.  Also the medication would come under the PBS scheme which means it would actually cost less than OTC.

46 minutes ago, lujanit said:

Elderly people mostly have a Health Care Card (only the wealthy don't) and these people are bulk-billed by their doctor.  Also the medication would come under the PBS scheme which means it would actually cost less than OTC.

As I said cost to the taxpayer...

THe medicine under the PPBS scheme has a cost of

1 the doctor's visit

2 the Pharacist proffessional fee

3 Government list price for the medication which is higher than normal retail.

 

the above three items are mainly  paid by the government.

Many (most doctors no longer bulk bill for people on Health Care Cards, they charge more.  Some still bulk bill for those on Pension cards.

 

The patient, has to pay  out of pocked a fee of 

The co-payment is the amount you pay towards the cost of your PBS medicine. Many PBS medicines cost a lot more than you actually pay as a co-payment.

From 1 January 2016, you pay up to $38.30 for most PBS medicines or $6.20 if you have a concession card. The Australian Government pays the remaining cost.

From 1 January 2016, pharmacists may choose to discount the PBS patient co-payment by up to $1.00. This is not mandatory and it is the pharmacist’s choice whether or not to provide a discount. The option to discount the co-payment does not apply for prescriptions which are an early supply of a specified medicine.

The amount of co-payment is adjusted on 1 January each year in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Safety Net there is a safety net though of  On 1 January 2016, the Safety Net thresholds changed from $366.00 to $372.00 (for concession card holders) and from $1,453.90 to $1,475.70 (for all other patients). These increases include the usual annual CPI indexation. A similar increase has occurred each year for four years (commencing in 2006). This is thee amount a patient may have to pay up to a year,

If they knew about this issue for 3 years, what took so long to restrict the sale??

2 hours ago, chiang mai said:

A sensible move, pharmacies n the UK cannot sell more than a minimal amount of paracetamol/codeine at one time, for the same reasons.

 

AND, the sale of kitchen knives to younger people is banned!

And aspirin and ibuprofin.

To be honest I find this OTT and inconvenient as I am the type to buy enough to last for a while, hopefully in a single vsit. Although surely in Thailand some drugs could be resrticted to prescription only.

As to knives, selling to children would concern me, as well as other weapons.

It's not the medicine that is dangerous, it's the brainless people taking it

1 minute ago, jacko45k said:

And aspirin and ibuprofin.

To be honest I find this OTT and inconvenient as I am the type to buy enough to last for a while, hopefully in a single vsit. Although surely in Thailand some drugs could be resrticted to prescription only.

As to knives, selling to children would concern me, as well as other weapons.

 

I believe there are five classifications of drugs in Thailand and each is restricted accordingly:

 

Freely available at any pharmacy

Available only at pharmacies where a Grade A pharmacist is in attendance

Available as above but only after signing a register

Available at pharmacies with prescription

Available only at certain hospitals.

Sale of drugs should be restricted between 2pm - 5pm.

I don't get it, All that happens when I eat Tramadol is; I get sleepy and go to bed? Even when I overdose. If I mix it with alcohol I get even more sleepy. 

If becoming sleepy is the result of taking it, what's the point?

Whole stocks to be sold out today. Anyone can buy any kind of drug in Thailand without any prescription.

 

Send one journalist with a secret camera, let me show where anyone can buy. I am not sure hardly any drug store checks any prescription.

 

All you need is proper name of the medicine, or the generic name to get another brand.

28 minutes ago, Sphere said:

Sale of drugs should be restricted between 2pm - 5pm.

 

And within 100 metres of education site, that would work.

10 pills per sale... wow... I have 5 pharmacies within 5 min walking distance, 15 within 5 min scooter drive... where is the restriction?

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

2 minutes ago, Swiss1960 said:

10 pills per sale... wow... I have 5 pharmacies within 5 min walking distance, 15 within 5 min scooter drive... where is the restriction?

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
 

The restriction is that each pharmacy is only able to sell 1000 pills a month total

They can only be sold when the pharmacist is actually present

They must be recorded in a leger with ID number.

Complicate one small problem, open the door to price gouging and cause many problems for a lot of people.

If you really need / want tramadol you will be able to find it among the hundreds of pharmacies in your town or city. I had an impacted wisdom tooth removed last month (the single worse and painful dental experience I have gone through, more so than smashing 3 teeth out in an accident) and I wanted some tramadol and obtained it easily without a script. They have said countless times that they are restricting the sale of tramadol but here it remains. 

Dare I say it.

A world of pain.

26 minutes ago, Swiss1960 said:

10 pills per sale... wow... I have 5 pharmacies within 5 min walking distance, 15 within 5 min scooter drive... where is the restriction?

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
 

Cant you see where this is going?

First you can buy all you want any where..

Then you have to sign to buy.

Then you can only buy 10 pills.

Next they will be only available at hospitals..

As ban happy as governments are they could even be banned..

 

Bloody ridiculous, the only decent painkiller left that you can get easily here, you can only get ordinary opiates after lining some pharmacist or Doctors pockets, what do they expect poorer people to do take paracetamol? keep this up and the Opium trade is gonna start to make a comeback , idiots..... 

I am tired of druggies making my life more complicated; it is time to start killing them all off.

14 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

Cant you see where this is going?

First you can buy all you want any where..

Then you have to sign to buy.

Then you can only buy 10 pills.

Next they will be only available at hospitals..

As ban happy as governments are they could even be banned..

 

 

Really, you think that!

This is horrible news for those of us who live with chronic pain. It's the Thai way....throw the baby out with the bathwater.

3 minutes ago, Chip Allen said:

This is horrible news for those of us who live with chronic pain. It's the Thai way....throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

And the UK way, and the European way, and......!