Usage of opium and its derivatives in pharmacotherapies in El Salvador

Resumen

In the Central American region and particularly in El Salvador, many technical, legal and social difficulties have historically arisen for the usage of controlled drugs (narcotics, psychotropics and chemical precursors). So, for the population in general, the access to this type of medicine has been quite difficult. For this, a series of factors have greatly influenced, such as Legal Norms that are regularly quite restrictive and that generate fear in prescribingor using them by some health professionals, especially due to ignorance of it and fear of legal consequences for the poor prescription or misuse of medications by patients. Among other influencing factors, there are the low local or regional production of medicines that declare opium or its derivatives as active substances, social factors, such as discrimination against people who use this type of medicine or fear of the risks of addiction due to the wrong use of them.