Demotte wants methadone control

5 December 2003

BRUSSELS – Social Affairs Minister Rudy Demotte has called for the treatment of drug addicts with methadone to be more strictly regulated.

Demotte has prepared a Royal decree whereby doctors would only be allowed to prescribe methadone for those registered in official drug prevention centres.

The hope is that this would help better control the use of methadone and co-ordinate its prescription. Until now, the legal basis for prescribing methadone has been unclear.

With this new regulation, Demotte says he wants to prevent situations such as that which occurred in Tongeren this year, when seven people died of drug overdoses within a relatively short period of time.

Subject: Belgian news