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Icelanders biggest users of addictive drugs in Nordic countries:report

Xinhua, November 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Icelanders are the biggest users of addictive drugs in the Nordic countries and there is real cause for concern, online newspaper Iceland Monitor reported on Monday.

Iceland tops the Nordic table in the use of addictive painkillers, stimulants, sleeping pills, tranquilisers, sedatives and anticonvulsants, according to the report.

"We are seeing much greater use of addictive drugs in Iceland than anywhere else in the Nordics," said Olafur B. Einarsson, project manager for pharmaceuticals at the Iceland Directorate of Health.

"For instance, Icelanders are by far the biggest users of stimulants such as Ritalin and related drugs - we use proportionally 260 percent more than the Swedes, in second place," he said.

Data from the Nordic Medico-Statistical Committee (NOMESKO) showed that Iceland has been the biggest consumers of painkillers in the Nordic countries since 2013.

The use of opioids - usually analgesics - has risen by 18 percent in Iceland over the last nine years, but fallen by 4 percent in Norway and 14 percent in Denmark, according to a recent article by the Icelandic Medicines Agency.

Opioid drugs are the most frequent cause of death in cases of suspected drug intoxication and such deaths are on the rise in Iceland, Iceland Monitor reported. Endit