Some 200,000 Hungarians addicted to medication

Close to 200,000 Hungarians suffer from addiction to some kind of medicine, the toxicologist Gábor Zacher said on public television on Sunday.

Some 70,000 Hungarians are addicted to sedatives, about 100,00 to laxatives and 25,000 to nasal drops, Zacher said on news channel M1. The problem of addiction to sedatives is one that exists but is not discussed in Hungary, even though it is a big public health issue and must be talked about, he added.

Addiction to opiate-type painkillers is not as big a problem in Hungary as it is in the United States, where 90 people die each day from overdoses of opiate pain medicines, Zacher said.

As we wrote before, the survey about the alcohol and drug consumption habits of 15-16 year olds was conducted with the participation of 96 thousand young people from 35 European countries. Hungary’s results show above the average tendencies when it comes to legal psychotropic drugs; smoking and drinking among students in Hungary appears to be higher than in other parts of Europe.

According to a fresh report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) released, cannabis continues to be the drug of choice for drug users in Hungary.

Source: MTI