“Tussal” still available without prescription

It turned out to be very hard get to know for what medicine you could be imprisoned in Russia.

The Minister of Healthcare of Belarus has recently sent an order demanding to stop selling “Tussal” without a prescription in Belarus. This medicine drew most attention because two Belarusians have already been imprisoned for 14 years for having imported it to Russia. A narcotic dextromethorphan has been found in it. The head of the pharmaceutical inspectorate of the Ministry of Healthcare Lyudmila Reutskaya informs about the measures Belarus is going to take:

Reutskaya: According to the international convention, “Tussal” is not forbidden. So we have to provide people with it if they need it to recover. I think nobody would dare to ignore the Minister’s demand.

However, the inspector is mistaken. You can buy “Tussal” without any problems at Minsk drug-stores. It is even easier to buy its analogs that also contain narcotics. It is sold without a prescription in Baranavichy where two Belarusian guys sentenced to imprisonment in Russia bought this ill-fated medicine.

Employee of a Baranavichy drug-store: You can still buy it without a prescription. It costs 3400 BRB.

The Ministry of Healthcare requested to find out whether there were any cases of using the medicine as a narcotic but the verbal response was negative. The deputy head of the department of information and public relations of the Ministry of Internal Affaires Aleh Slepchanka confirmed it to ERB.

Slepchanka: The content of psychoactive drugs in “Tussal” is very low so it is not popular with our drug addicts.  We have not registered any cases of using “Tussal” as a psychoactive drug.

At the same time there are a lot of topics on some Belarusian forums dedicated to the procedure of preparing drugs from “Tussal”.

Moreover, the “Tussal” that the guys from Baranavichy Alyaksandr Chachurau and Syarhei Lahun brought to Russia was requested with the help of the Internet. Their lawyer Stanislau Markelau is going to send an appeal today because his considers the decision of Moscow court to be very strict.

Mr. Markelau turned to Belarusian officials because he thinks that the state should protect its citizens if they committed no crime according to national laws.

Markelau: There are no documents informing that “Tussal” is forbidden in Russia. It is a Polish medicine so we do not have it.

It is hard to get information about drugs and substances forbidden to be imported to Russia because there are no check-points at the Belarusian-Russian border. In fact, there is no border.

Not only “Tussal” but also “Epidex” and “Fludisoft” contain the narcotic dextromethorphan.

ERB has managed to find a list of narcotics, psychoactive drugs and their analogs that are forbidden in the Russian Federation.


Photo by: www.photosight.ru