The Czech Republic Annual Report 2010 Drug ... - Drogy-info.cz

shut down by the authorities. The local citizens were rather passive but shared their concerns regarding further
developments. The media reported on the situation, which resulted in two effects: promotion (of the sale of NSDs)
and prevention (spreading information about their potentially negative effects).
The local authorities and the Police of the Czech Republic mostly only monitored the situation by April 2011 and the
Czech Trade Inspectorate ordered the removal of certain products from the market because of their non-compliant
identification, but no systematic solution to the uncontrolled sale of NSDs had been found before the coming into
force of the amendment to the Addictive Substances Act, i.e. before the most common NSDs became illegal. As
early as on the day on which the amendment concerned came into force, the police conducted a large-scale
operation against the shops selling NSDs across the entire Czech Republic. Most of the shops, however, had been
closed or had suspended their operations by then.
The information obtained by the National Focal Point through a query to the regional and local drug coordinators in
August 2011 showed that there were retail outlets offering new synthetic drugs (legal highs) in at least three Czech
towns and cities at the time. They were located in Hradec Králové, Trutnov, and Karlovy Vary, where the shops
supposedly sold mixtures and supplies for smokers and other gift items and souvenirs and, under the counter, also
NSDs. New synthetic drugs (legal highs) were offered in August 2011 by a number of websites, which often stated
that the substances were not controlled in the Czech Republic (such as modified mephedrone on the website
http://mefedron-info.cz/). There is a reason for concerns that the retail sales of NSDs in the Czech Republic will
resume to one degree or another after other NSDs which are not included in the schedules to the Addictive
Substances Act are introduced to the Czech market.
Information released by the police in June 2011 suggests 120 that fentanyl was distributed in the Czech Republic
(specifically, in the Moravia-Silesia region) in late 2010. It was a white powder, in which fentanyl was cut with
paracetamol and caffeine. The mixture was distributed under the name Vlacho, most probably by a group of
Wallachian (Olah) Roma. A total of 3 kg of the drug were seized. Two deaths resulting from an overdose with the
presence of fentanyl were identified in the Czech Republic in 2010; for details see the chapter on Drug-Related
Deaths and Mortality of Drug Users (p. 95). Because of the high potency of fentanyl, its occurrence on the black
market is associated with an increased risk of overdose.
10.2 Seizures
The data on drug seizures represent seizures made by the Police of the Czech Republic and the Customs
Administration of the Czech Republic (specifically the Customs Drug Unit). Seizures which involved multiple types of
drugs are always included separately in the individual drug types; the total number of seizures was therefore lower
than the sum of all the seizures by drug type.
Marijuana was the drug that was most frequently seized in 2010. The yearly number of marijuana seizures in the four
previous years (2007–2010) was between 550 and 600. A total of 278 kg of marijuana were seized in 2010. A total
of nearly 65 thousand cannabis plants were seized in 189 seizures, twice the number of cannabis plants seized in
2009. The number of cannabis plantations detected is increasing; a total of 145 were discovered in 2010 (compared
to 84 in 2009). The number of hashish seizures was relatively stable in 2007–2010, reaching approximately 30–40 a
year; Table 10-3. In 2010, the Customs Drug Unit reported 80 seizures of marijuana with a total quantity of 37 kg. A
half of the seizures were of postal consignments, most commonly being sent via air mail to the United Kingdom or
Ireland. The Customs Drug Unit also performed 18 seizures of a total of 0.5 kg of hashish – most of the postal
consignments in which the hashish was placed was being sent to the Czech Republic from Spain or the Netherlands
by air mail. The largest seizure of cannabis which the Customs Drug Unit performed took place inland – a total of
9 kg of marijuana was hidden in a vehicle travelling from the Czech Republic to Austria.
With 283 seizures, pervitin remains the second most commonly seized drug. Approximately 300–400 seizures
annually were reported in the last four years. The quantity of 21.3 kg of pervitin seized in 2010 is the highest figure in
the past four years. A total of 307 cooking labs were detected, corresponding with the average of 300–400 labs
detected annually in the past four years. The Police of the Czech Republic and the Customs Drug Unit seized large
volumes of medicines containing pseudoephedrine, which is the dominant pervitin precursor; the increase is
significant (309,176 tablets seized in 2010 compared to 42,285 tablets of medicines containing pseudoephedrine
seized in 2009). There was a marked decrease in the quantity that was seized of medicines containing
pseudoephedrine which are distributed in Czech pharmacies (Modafen ® , Nurofen ® StopGrip, Panadol ® Plus Grip,
Paralen ® Plus) and, on the contrary, an increase in the number of seizures of medicines imported from Poland
(especially of Sudafed ® and Acatar ® , which contain 60 mg of pseudoephedrine in a single tablet, i.e. double the
amount found in the preparations sold over the counter in the Czech Republic). According to the Customs Drug Unit,
the typical pattern of the importing of such medicines is the following: one person purchases larger quantities (of up
to several kilograms) of medicines containing pseudoephedrine in Poland, imports them to the Czech Republic, and
distributes them to the producers of pervitin. The Customs Drug Unit also seized a significant quantity of ephedrine in
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See also http://www.policie.cz/clanek/tiskova-zprava-z-operace-fent.aspx (2011-08-24)
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