Three people, residing in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), were placed in preventive detention on April 19 as part of a broad investigation into international drug trafficking. According to the prosecution, the imported quantity was estimated at 288,911 pregabalin tablets for a total amount of 577,822 euros for resale.
Last November, French customs warned of a growing number of seizures of pregabalin, better known by its trade name Lyrica. This medication, a common red, white, or pink tablet, is diverted due to its use as a narcotic product.
diverted medication
In France, its marketing authorization dates back to 2004. Pregabalin is a medication prescribed to treat epilepsy, generalized anxiety disorders and neuropathic pain (after shingles or for diabetics, for example). Misuse of this medication can cause disinhibitory and stimulant effects similar to those caused by opiates, but at a lower cost.
“You might think that this only affects drug addicts, but that is not the case at all,” Joëlle Micallef, director of the CEIP-Addictovigilance PACA Corse, explains to France 3.
“The first patients we treated were unaccompanied foreign minors who lived in very difficult conditions, with stress related to migration and who saw this product as a stimulus,” the president of the Addiction Federation, Jean-Michel Delile, told 20 minutes. .
Little by little, the consumption of this drug spread among a precarious population that lived on the streets. Additionally, people who are legally prescribed this medication can also become dependent.
“The drug of the poor”
Pregabalin is sometimes called “the poor man’s drug.” In fact, a tablet usually sells for about 2 euros each. In pharmacies, a box of Lyrica 300 mg costs about 23 euros for 56 tablets, which makes it easier to make a profit and therefore explains the increase in traffic.
This drug is “regularly sold by urban criminal networks that are also dedicated to the illegal sale of cigarettes and tobacco,” writes the General Directorate of Customs.
The abuse of this medication has been noted for several years in France, particularly in the context of falsified prescriptions or medical and pharmaceutical nomadism, that is, the multiplication, by the same patient, of consultations with different doctors for the same object, in a short period of time.
Given this situation, the National Agency for Medicines Safety (ANSM) restricted the prescription conditions for pregabalin in 2021. To obtain it, it is necessary to go through a safe and tamper-proof prescription with a maximum duration of six months.
A change that sometimes leads to intimidation of doctors. “They are a bit scary, they often don’t come alone… I have always refused to prescribe them, but you have to negotiate,” Jean-Jacques Fraslin, a general practitioner, told BFMTV.
Important risks
As the Order of Pharmacists points out on its site, “the abuse essentially aims to obtain a euphoric effect in a context of polyconsumption of psychoactive substances, but also for anxiolytic, analgesic or hypnotic purposes. In more than half of the cases, is thus associated with another substance”.
“The side effects can be hyperarousal or, on the contrary, the effect of falling asleep, bordering on a gunshot,” David Saada, pharmacist, explains to BFMTV.
The National Medicines Agency reminds that taking too high a dose of pregabalin can lead to dependence and health risks, even an overdose. The main related complications are alterations in consciousness, disorientation, confusion and can cause coma, respiratory failure and death.
“Pregabalin may lower the tolerance threshold for opioids, increasing the risk of respiratory depression and opioid-related death,” the agency also writes.
Source: BFM TV
