The verdict of Alevtina Khorinyak

On October 21, the court of the Oktyabrsky district of Krasnoyarsk will announce the verdict in the sensational case of the local general practitioner Alevtina Khorinyak, who, in violation of the law, wrote out a prescription for an anesthetic for a cancer patient.

During the debate, the prosecutor demanded a fine of 15 thousand rubles for the 72-year-old defendant.

In 2009, Khorinyak wrote two prescriptions for the opioid analgesic tramadol for incurable cancer patient Viktor Sechin. The patient suffered from unbearable pain. Khorinyak prescribed the drug, despite the fact that the patient did not live in the service area of ​​her polyclinic. An acquaintance of the patient, Tabarintseva, bought medicines at a pharmacy with her own money.

In 2011, the State Drug Control Service found prescriptions in a pharmacy. A criminal case was opened under part 2 of article 234 of the Criminal Code (illegal trafficking in large quantities of potent substances by prior conspiracy for the purpose of sale, committed by an organized group) and article 327 (forgery of a document in order to facilitate the commission of another crime).

In May 2013, Nonna Markova, judge of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnoyarsk, found Khorinyak and Tabarintseva guilty and fined them 15,000 rubles each. At the trial, facts of pressure on witnesses were recorded.

Three months later, the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court overturned the verdict. The court found that the defendants' right to defense had been violated. The case has been remanded to the district court for a new trial. Khorinyak stated that she intends to seek a full acquittal. The retrial began in February of this year.

More than 1500 representatives of the medical community signed a letter in support of Khorinyak. International organizations of palliative medicine spoke in her defense. The international organization Human Rights Watch demanded that charges be dropped against Khorinyak and her accomplice. “Allegations of opioid trafficking and document forgery are sheer nonsense and absurd,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “Khorinyak and L.T. are being prosecuted for preventing a terminally ill man from dying in pain, that could be alleviated.

In 2014, a wave of suicides of patients with pain swept through Russia, who were unable to obtain painkillers. in St. Petersburg In January , the seriously ill Vice Admiral Yuri Ustimenko shot himself . A month later, Rear Admiral Vyacheslav Apanasenk , also suffering from cancer, committed suicide in Moscow. in the capital From March 12 to March 24 , eight cancer patients committed suicide . shot himself with a premium pistol . In June , Major General Viktor Gudkov , who suffered from severe pain in his legs,

On September 24, the State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill that makes it easier for seriously ill patients to receive painkillers . Among the innovations are the extension of the validity of drug prescriptions from 5 to 30 days, as well as the abolition of the rule requiring relatives of patients to return used transdermal therapeutic systems, that is, patches and films. The document was submitted to the State Duma in February. The authors of the bill noted that the access of people suffering from unbearable pain to painkillers is very difficult. "Often this happens due to excessive bureaucracy in the process of obtaining and then destroying narcotic and psychotropic drugs," the explanatory note said.