Putin was asked to allow the import of the drug modafinil, which is needed by people with sleep disorders, into the Russian Federation. Now, ordering it from abroad can result in a real prison term • Meduza • RIMA

Putin was asked to allow the import of the drug modafinil, which is needed by people with sleep disorders, into the Russian Federation. Now, ordering it from abroad can result in a real prison term

Russians with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia have written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for permission to import modafinil, a drug that helps combat daytime sleepiness, into the country, Kommersant reports , citing the Ratio public association.

In 2012, the Russian government included modafinil in the list of narcotic and psychotropic substances whose circulation in the Russian Federation is restricted. The authorities explained this by the fact that the drug's effect on the human brain has not been fully studied. In the US and Europe, the drug is permitted, but is sold by prescription. Kommersant notes that currently, importing the drug into Russia is punishable by criminal liability.

In their appeal to Putin, patients propose to formalize the procedure for importing medicines by Russian citizens, allowing them to be sent by mail with proper declaration and a prescription issued by a doctor in Russia.

"Patients with sleep disorders should have been offered some alternative, but this did not happen. Yes, there are groups of drugs that reduce the degree of drowsiness, but no drug used in Russia has such an efficiency and safety profile as modafinil. People who have already taken modafinil are left virtually without treatment. For them, this is a completely stalemate," somnologist and doctor of medical sciences Roman Buzunov told Kommersant.

In February 2024, the Petrogradsky District Court of St. Petersburg sentenced Andrey Volotka, a leading researcher at ITMO University, to four years in a strict regime penal colony, finding him guilty of smuggling and purchasing narcotic or psychotropic substances in large quantities. The scientist said that he had long had problems with sleep, and had been taking modafinil since 2015, when he lived in Germany, where he was prescribed this drug. Upon returning to Russia, he could not find the drug in pharmacies, so he decided to buy it online. In March 2023, he ordered the drug on the official website of an Indian pharmacy, paying for the purchase with cryptocurrency for $63. A month later, Volotka was detained by police at a post office while receiving a parcel.