Source: www.dailystar.com.lb

BEIRUT: Once upon a time, or so the anecdote goes, alprazolam (aka Xanax) and anti-anxiety medicines of its ilk were passed around Beirut’s Civil War parlors like after-dinner mints. Today, psychotropic drug regulations have largely curtailed such blatant self-medication, and yet pharmacists still report rising demand for prescription benzodiazepines, or tranquilizers, and experts say their misuse remains rife.

Widad Hachem, who runs a pharmacy in Beirut’s Downtown, said she was approached at least three times a week by individuals seeking prescription anti-anxiety medicines.

Hachem refuses to fulfill such requests, recommending herbal medicines as an alternative and advising the individual to go and consult a doctor.

She feels that although some ask for a specific product by its trade name, “most are not conscious that it is dangerous to take [these medications] without guidance.”

Hachem also pointed out that those seeking the medications were not from one particular age group.

Likewise, a Mar Mikhael pharmacist told The Daily Star that an increasing number of people were coming to ask her for alprazolam and diazepam (sold under the trade name Valium), but insisted she did not sell these drugs without first seeing a prescription.

While antibiotics are easily acquired over the counter in Lebanon, stricter regulations do appear to have taken a widespread toll on pharmacists’ willingness to sell designated psychotropic drugs to individuals without prescriptions.

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