PM Kopacz speaks out after drug poisonings
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
13.07.2015 12:06
Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz has pledged that the government will 'accelerate' the fight against booster drugs, after a rash of poisonings in Silesia in recent days.
Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz speaks with journalists on Monday, Central Train Station, Warsaw. Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak
By Monday morning, some 204 people had been admitted to hospital due to suspected poisioning by a batch of booster drugs. The first cases were recorded on Thursday.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, Prime Minister Kopacz noted that the sale of a number of substances classed as booster drugs has been illegal since 1 July, owing to legislation voted through in April.
However, she said that new substances appear on the market with alarming speed, meaning that new legal highs take the place of those that have been banned.
Kopacz stressed that “from the placing on the market of a substance until its recognition and inclusion on the list [of prohited substances], there will always be a period in which people will be poisoned and die.”
She said that the government must “very strongly accelerate” the fight against the booster drug phenomenon.
Most of the Silesian victims are between the age of 15 and 24. Toxicological studies have been commissioned to identify the substances involved. (nh)