Medicine confiscated Father wants to help sick daughter - justice shows no mercy
A father wants to help his seriously ill daughter and orders a drug from Italy that is not authorized in Switzerland. But Swissmedic intervened. Now the Federal Supreme Court has ruled.
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- A father imported the drug Delorazepam, which is not authorized in Switzerland, for his daughter with severe epilepsy - with a doctor's prescription.
- Although the Zurich authorities classified the case as a trivial matter, Swissmedic demanded a harsher punishment.
- The Federal Supreme Court agreed with Swissmedic and referred the case back to the Zurich High Court for a stricter assessment.
A father sees only one way to help his severely epileptic daughter: he gets her the drug Delorazepam from Italy. The problem: the drug is not licensed in Switzerland. Now the Federal Court has had to deal with this, reports the "Beobachter".
The man, who according to the report is now probably of pensioner age, ordered the supply by post with a prescription. He had previously collected the tablets in person in Italy. However, customs intercepted the package - and pressed charges.
Delorazepam is an active ingredient from the benzodiazepine family that has a calming and anxiety-relieving effect. The daughter has been taking it for years and has suffered from severe epilepsy since the age of five.
Daughter refuses to change medication
The doctors treating her spoke to father and daughter several times about alternatives - without success. "She takes the medication regularly and tolerates it well," the "Beobachter" quotes from a doctor's report. A year later, she still refuses to change her medication, which would involve a stay in hospital.
The documents state that "Delorazepam is the medication that helps her best". The father felt he was in the right - after all, he had a prescription and the treatment was medically supervised.
Federal Court sends case back to Zurich
However, because the tablets can be addictive, they cannot simply be imported. Swissmedic reported the man and the police investigated. However, the Zurich judicial authorities deemed the case to be trivial and decided not to impose a penalty - based on the Therapeutic Products Act.
According to "Beobachter", Swissmedic was not satisfied with this and took the case to the Federal Supreme Court. Swissmedig argued that the Narcotics Act applied in this case: anyone who violated it could face a fine or even a prison sentence of up to three years.
The Federal Supreme Court reprimanded Zurich: the authorities had wrongly applied the more lenient law. The case goes back to the High Court, which must now make a new decision in accordance with the stricter provisions of the Narcotics Act.
