Costa Rica.’s La Repulica reports
The fact that drug use disorders continue to be a growing cause of short- and long-term health problems, with inexorable economic costs and a social burden, with thousands of deaths a year and loss of years of healthy life, are for the College of Pharmacists enough reasons to oppose thebill that is in the Legislative Assembly on the recreational use of Cannabis.
In this sense, the union makes a respectful call to the legislators so that, above all, priority is given to the health of the population and this bill presented by the Executive, since October of last year, is rejected.
The institution wishes to highlight the commitment of the pharmacist as a health educator and of the country’s community pharmacies as true primary care centers, where the patient can receive, from a health professional, information on the rational use of medicines and be oriented in regarding the risks involved in the recreational use of drugs, including marijuana, the College detailed through a press release.
Read more: Initiative to legalize the consumption of recreational marijuana adds more enemies
“There is a commitment from the pharmacist to contribute to public health through a series of actions aimed, among others, at providing information to patients and also about reducing the harm associated with public health with the use and abuse of drugs. ”, affirmed Gustavo Sáenz, spokesman for the College of Pharmacists.
In this regard, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Costa Rica, the National Academy of Medicine and the Costa Rican Association of Psychiatry had already expressed their opposition.
