cannabisnews.com: Nation Pops Pills for Relief 





Nation Pops Pills for Relief 
Posted by CN Staff on March 20, 2003 at 18:54:34 PT
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times
Source: Seattle Times
Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro — That familiar feeling was back, the same choking mix of helplessness, depression and uncertainty. It hit her when NATO bombed Belgrade in 1999, and it came barreling back last week when Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated by sharpshooters. But this time, Emina Cano-Tomic has an extra bit of support at hand: the sedatives she has been taking for the past year. 
"They're a great help," Cano-Tomic said as she sat smoking in her cozy Belgrade living room. And not just to her. The people of this war-torn country are among the most heavily tranquilized in the world, with a habit picked up during a dozen years of civil strife, ethnic violence and dictatorial rule. Countless Serbs, young and old, have turned to anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants and marijuana to help cope with the misery born of their recent history. Last week's ambush of Djindjic, gunned down as he went to work, confirmed fears that the misery is not over. The attack jolted many residents out of the security and hopefulness they had slowly allowed themselves to feel and reawakened the depression and dread of the past. "It's become clear to all of us what kind of society we live in, and that society hasn't changed too much," Cano-Tomic, 36, said. An electrical engineer, Cano-Tomic had never thought to seek solace through medication, preferring to cope on her own, until her therapist suggested she try an anti-anxiety drug or antidepressant. In agreeing, she chose a well-trod path in Serbia, the dominant republic in this country that is all that remains of the old Yugoslav federation. In 2001, Serbia's three most popular brands of sedatives sold an estimated 144 million pills in the republic of about 8 million people (excluding the people of Kosovo province). In 2002, the manufacturers of those pills ordered enough raw materials to manufacture 200 million, a top health official said last fall. At the time, all such medication was cheap, plentiful and available over the counter. Virtually any adult could walk into a pharmacy, plunk down small bills and emerge with a packet of Valiumlike pills to ease the many stresses of life commonplace here. But in September, the government — alarmed about rising addiction — decided to require prescriptions for tranquilizers and other anti-stress drugs, as health experts worried about what the statistics portended. "Such a big and uncontrolled use of sedatives suggests that something is deeply wrong here," Zarko Trebjesanin, a prominent psychologist and professor, told the newsmagazine NIN. "We are facing a massive neurosis." For many, the cause is not hard to pinpoint. For more than a decade, the people of Serbia have careered from one crisis to another, living under the strain of the Yugoslav civil wars, the coercive government of former President Slobodan Milosevic, the bombardment of Belgrade by NATO forces, the October 2000 revolution that brought Milosevic down and, most recently, the assassination of their prime minister. During that time, residents accustomed to relatively comfortable European lifestyles found themselves struggling to find work, lining up to buy bread and milk and, if they were men, wondering if they might be drafted. Survival was the name of the game, and the ability to adapt to constantly changing circumstances separated the strong from the weak. "Psychologically, it was a period of prolonged stress," said Dragan Ilic, a psychologist who is the host of a radio and television show. "Usually with stress, you deal with an accident ... and it lasts six months or so. But here, you had 10 years of constant stress, day after day." To cope, some turned to mundane escapes such as the Hollywood movies and Latin American soap operas that began filling the TV schedule. Many others turned to drugs as an additional source of stress reduction. For the young, marijuana — which could be bought for about 50 cents a gram — was plentiful; even elementary-school-age children could occasionally be found lighting joints. Among older residents, who clung to memories of better times as their standard of living plunged, the drug of choice was a sedative called Bensedin. "It was cheaper than aspirin. You could pick it up without a prescription," Ilic said. "We were becoming a Bensedin state." Older women would go on the radio to talk about how they popped a pill after waking up, took another over lunch with friends and then had one more while watching the afternoon news. "It was an addiction people started to accept," Ilic said. The problem was that users were self-medicating, without guidance from doctors. Among Serbs who take sedatives regularly, up to 80 percent do so without consulting a physician, according to an estimate in NIN. Private psychiatric care remains extremely expensive; in state hospitals, mental-health workers are overburdened and underpaid. Plus, there is a stigma attached to seeking professional help, although not to taking mood-altering drugs. Djindjic's assassination was a further blow. "I feel terrible," Danica Smudja, 67, said. "Terrible." A retired teacher, Smudja saw in Djindjic someone who might bring Serbia out of the political and economic wilderness with his pro-Western policies and reforms. Now, "whenever I see his photo, I start to cry," she said. Source: Seattle Times (WA)Author: Henry Chu, Los Angeles TimesPublished: Thursday, March 20, 2003 Copyright: 2003 The Seattle Times CompanyContact: opinion seatimes.comWebsite: http://www.seattletimes.com/Related Articles:Air Force 'Go-Pill' Deemed Hazardous http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15141.shtmlAddiction or Self Medication? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14741.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by WolfgangWylde on March 21, 2003 at 06:59:38 PT
Nobody...
...and I mean NOBODY, outdoes the U.S. when it comes to use of pharmacological mood shifters. From out kids to our elderly, we drug 'em up more than anyone.
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Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on March 21, 2003 at 06:49:15 PT
Yes John Wayne
Medical fascism is frightening, isn't it? We are all judged to be too stupid to care for ourselves, we must cede control over our bodies to the government and doctors. Time for the Jefferson quote again. Sadly, the founding fathers even foresaw this:"If people let governement decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." 
--Thomas Jefferson
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Comment #2 posted by lag on March 21, 2003 at 06:39:55 PT
conspiracy 101
A retired teacher, Smudja saw in Djindjic someone who might bring Serbia out of the political and economic wilderness with his pro-Western policies and reforms. Now, "whenever I see his photo, I start to cry," she said. I don't condone any sort of violence - okay...well, cartoon violence is okay - but hasn't it been seen that these 'pro-western' economic moves have actually done more to harm nations trying to get into the 'western' way of doing things? I haven't done enough research probably, but Seattle is where I first heard of the issues with corporate globalization and the world bank and such. On the other hand perhaps the prime minister was trying to do something that would actually help his country, and it didn't sit well with the pro-global folk. Conspiracy...I don't know, past precedent makes globalization 'conspiracies' all the more believable. I just hope I am not showing too much of my ignorance in this comment.
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Comment #1 posted by john wayne on March 20, 2003 at 22:51:39 PT
listen to the shocked tones,
the arch prudery coming from this author."The problem was that users were self-medicating, without guidance from doctors."And exactly what was the problem?  Doctors don't "guide" patients, they sell as many damn pills as they can.  For a fee, of course. And that's why the government had to step in. The croakers were getting cut out of the loop.
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