Gentlemen, One Mustn't Speculate With Medication!

There is no stronger indication of the moral and political crisis than the one which points to the fact that people's health is being bought and sold.  These days claims are once again being made regarding abuses in the medication industry, while our population, worn out by the crisis, appears to lack the strength to raise its voice.
"We won't give in like sheep," stated Dusan Mitevic, President of the Executive Committee of ICN Yugoslavia, in front of journalists last week, announcing that he will release to the public everything which all these years stifled the domestic drug industry - who imports what kinds of drugs, who are the owners of small factories which are cropping up like mushrooms and who are packing drugs en masse.  Mr. Mitevic stated this, suggesting that the biggest drug factory in the country, ICN Galenika, is being threatened with closure because of moves made by the government which, as he claims, is not honoring contracts and is refusing to fulfill its obligations for ordered and consumed drugs in the amount of 170 million dollars.

As far as could be understood, Mr. Mitevic pronounced these details in order to remind the state structure or someone in it, so as to direct a decisive warning to the government, which, it must be assumed, also knows who the producers and distributors of drugs are here, how they operate, who issues certificates to them, who conducts inspections, and who signs and pays the bills.

In other words there is a sense that there is a big stink around drugs.  In order for elementary social norms to be maintained, such suspicions should be quickly removed, eventual abuses prevented, and perpetrators punished.

The conflict between ICN and the state is perhaps long and complex, but in one regard it is quite clear - this conflict is connected with daily politics, that is to say with the appearance of Milan Panic on the domestic political scene, just as it has always heated up at earlier points whenever political battles were intensified.  Regardless of the argumentation surrounding this conflict, it must be explained to the public whether the conflict between the state and ICN could have consequences on the health of the population.  Moreover, if suspicions already exist that the sale of drugs is subject to protection, than they must be presented to the inspection, the prosecutor's office, to ethical committees, courts, the parliament and the public.  In other words, ICN representatives are responsible, when they mention the crown's evidence in that manner, to acquaint the public with what they know, for eventual uses of drugs for the acquisition of privileged profits falls under grave infractions of the law and public morale, which destroy the basis of the social contract.

The public interest must be more important than arguments in some ownership or business conflict.

During this spring, another event also shed light on the bad situation with regard to health care here.  During the court case held for Dr. Nenad Djordjevic, former Director of the Republican Institute for Social Security, the latter brought out a list of accusations against many responsible individuals regarding the situation with health insurance and the squandering and purposeless use of funds, etc.  The court, which passes judgment only on the basis of a complaint, did not examine seriously the claims made by the accused, but those claims did not interest anyone outside of the courtroom.  The public was not told whether such claims were being reacted to by those who, according to public responsibility, should have to react to them.

When such a set of circumstances arises, when even the smallest indications appear that the constitutional right of people to health is being subjected to abuse, the least that must be demanded from the Serbian and Yugoslav parliaments is the formation of a committee authorized for investigating all circumstances and to establishing facts, to prevent abuses in an area which affects public interest, all citizens and their progeny to a far greater degree than any other.  Mr. Mitevic and the representatives of all manufacturers, importers and drug merchants, ministers and vice-ministers, directors of institutes for social security and independent experts should be immediately held in front of a multi-party parliamentary committee, so that it would be possible to establish whether abuses exist, and if so, to what extent, and with what consequences for the health of the population.  Who should initiate the action for establishing such a committee?  The people's representatives, if after everything they can still be considered that.  Political parties should not have a more important issue.  Because here the public is systematically being destroyed through various manipulations, some people are bound to say that the public lacks the power to initiate such an investigation.  Social psychologists know very well that impotent despair, lethargy, apathy, depression and helpless indifference are the source of dictatorship and abuse.  This is a borderline case, where that hypnotic mechanism stops functioning.  Blackmailing the one who blackmails his kin who is looking for medication touches on that point when it is necessary to say enough.  The qualified public, above all medical associations, ethical committees, individuals whose reputation and profession demand that they do not hold their heads in the sand should raise their voices to protect the public good, while the right of people to health must be the highest public good.  Finally, what is at issue is an indication that this situation is denying an elementary human right.