committee chair Limor Son Har Melech: We must ensure that those who need these medications for medical purposes can obtain them with dignity and accessibility, while on the other hand – erecting a barrier that will make it difficult for those attempting to acquire them for trade or misuse.
The Health Committee today (Monday) approved the cancellation of the Dangerous Drugs Regulations (Dispensing and Transfer of Drugs), 1983. The cancellation is in light of an amendment approved by the committee about a year ago, which established a new version of regulations governing the dispensing of drugs for the purpose of drug rehabilitation. The committee chair, Limor Son Har Melech (Otzma Yehudit), emphasized that “we all understand that for patients who need them, drug substitutes are a necessity and an integral part of the treatment path. However, we cannot ignore the changing reality: in recent years, with accelerated technological development, the forgery of prescriptions and illegal purchase and trade has become easier and more accessible than ever before. Our goal is to close this loophole as much as possible. We want to create a precise balance: to ensure that those who need these medications for medical purposes can obtain them with dignity and accessibility, but on the other hand – to erect a barrier that will make it difficult for those attempting to acquire them for trade or misuse.”
Eliyahu Marom, Deputy Director of the Pharmacy Division at the Ministry of Health, explained that the regulations were drafted about 43 years ago and are no longer adapted to the drugs currently in use for drug rehabilitation. The Pharmacists Regulations stipulate the process for handling dangerous drugs for the purpose of rehabilitation from drugs used as drug substitutes that were registered at that time, and they were primarily intended for the treatment of severe street drug users. However, today there is a wider variety of drug preparations registered in Israel for rehabilitation purposes, not just the drugs defined in the regulations’ appendix, and rehabilitation processes have also been expanded for the purpose of overcoming addiction to opioid drugs, which patients began using as part of medical treatment and became addicted to over the years.
The Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, in its new version, regulates the handling of dangerous drugs, and based on it, the Dangerous Drugs Regulations, 1979, were enacted, which regulate the conduct with dangerous drugs. The Dangerous Drugs Regulations were amended about a year ago and updated according to the needs that arose over the years with the rise in the use of dangerous drugs. Even today, they are undergoing legislative amendment as part of the Ministry of Health‘s response to the opioid epidemic in Israel. As part of this amendment, the Dangerous Drugs Regulations will include an updated list of drug substitutes used to treat drug users within the framework of addiction rehabilitation.
For background material and the Ministry of Health‘s appeal:
https://main.knesset.gov.il/Activity/committees/health/Pages/CommitteeMaterial.aspx?ItemID=2238253
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