Minister outlines further expansion of designer drug blacklist in Hungary

The blacklist of designer drugs may be extended further in the coming months in an effort to adapt to changes on the “drug market”, the state secretary of the human resources ministry told the press on Thursday.

In 2013, Hungary has implemented the strictest and fastest-reaction drug regulation system in Europe, which closely follows the changes of the “drug market”, Bence Rétvári said. Over the past few years, 73 new substances were added to the blacklist of designer drugs alone, he said. The government also allocates 6 billion forints (EUR 19.8m) to infrastructure development of mental health care and addiction treatment centres as well as 3 billion to prevention and 2 billion to school social services, he said.

The statement came after police announced on Sunday to launch an investigation into the possible appearance of a new substance in Budapest after several people with confused behaviour had been taken to hospital.

As we wrote before, a 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.

Source: MTI