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-Issue Number 200 |
Thursday,December 1, 2005 | Page
8 |
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Welcome
to the on line edition of the popular Tenerife free newspaper The Tenerife
Sun. Click on the page pictures on the left hand side or the grid below
to navigate around the articles. Or: Click Here
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[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]
Prescription drug spree on the way out
THE DAYS of easy access to drugs only available on a doctor’s
prescription in Britain are coming to an end in Spain. Proposed tightening
of existing but often flouted laws is due to come into force across
mainland Spain and the Canaries next summer. But many high street chemists,
fearing fines as high as €90,000, have already begun refusing to
dispense popular medicines without a doctor’s signature.
The measures, floated in the first draft of a new law to replace one
dating from 1990, are designed to bring Spain into line with several
EU regulations dealing with both human health and veterinary practice.
Antibiotics, contraceptive pills and cortisone creams, until now freely
dispensed by pharmacists, are among the drugs affected by the new law.
But the legislation will also mean an immediate reduction of two per
cent in the price of medicines, according to the ministry of health.
A Puerto de Santiago pharmacist confirmed he had been applying the
new rules for about a month. A chemist in the south of Tenerife said:
“I daren’t sell them without prescription,” and crossed
his wrists in a gesture to indicate severe punishment. The Law of Guarantees
and Rational Use of Medicines and Health Products introduces sanctions
for 65 types of offence with fines up to €1 million for introducing
medicines to the market without authorisation.
Measures also cover the sale of medicines over the internet and selling
fake drugs, among others.
One of the main blows for ex-pats is the extra expense at the doctor's
for consultation. Politicians, concerned over the spiralling costs of
medicines dispensed through the national health, have included measures
in the bill to reduce the price of medicines.
While the government recognises the need for drug companies to get back
the vast amounts of money spent on developing new drugs, it reasons
that those costs are usually recouped within 10 years so the price can
be lowered to match that of generic medicines. The government will also
prevent pharmaceutical companies claiming
cosmetic changes, such as solubility or taste, to drugs as innovative.
Under the present system such cosmetic improvements have attracted price
increases up to a staggering 80 per cent.
peter@thetenerifesun.com
Parents to sue cops over Costa murder
THE
parents of murdered teenager Sonia Carabantes are to sue Spanish police
over the death of their daughter.
They claim Costa Killer Tony King could have been caught sooner and accuse
police of incompetence for allowing the attack on Sonia to occur as she
walked home from a local town fiesta.
Sickened parents Encarnacion Guzman and Jose Maria Carabantes believe
Spanish cops failed to act on serious warnings from Scotland Yard in 1998
that a known sex attacker could be operating close to Malaga.
If they had, they say, their daughter would still be alive. The case has
highlighted the need for better monitoring of convicted sex attackers
across international borders.
The couple are spearheading growing support for a public inquiry into
why King was not caught sooner by Spanish cops. King, who was previously
sentenced to jail by British courts as Holloway Strangler Tony Bromwich,
moved to the Costa del Sol in 1997. Tony Alexander King, 40, was given
36 years in a Spanish jail on November 15 for the murder of Sonia in August,
2003. His shocked elderly mother, Lynda, at home in Archway, north London,
has said
she will launch an appeal against the severity of the sentence. Last week,
after 11 days behind bars, he once again appeared before courts charged
with the murder of a second Spanish girl, Rocio Wanninkhof, in 1999.
Scotland Yard’s serious crime directorate also wants to question
the killer over seven murders, three rapes and the disappearance of two
women in the London area. It is believed King flew back to Britain under
his new alias several
times since his release eight years ago. Serial strangler Tony Bromwich
was free to change his name by deed poll after his conviction for sex
attacks and moved to his new life in Spain.
José Maria Garzón, the lawyer representing the Carabantes’s
family, says the Spanish government “has civilian responsibility
for not controlling Tony King”. Spanish cops finally swooped on
King after reading a second email
from Yard officers urging them to act. British and Spanish cops are now
busy blaming each other for the bungles
which left King free to roam the Costa del Sol for his prey. Guardia Civil
and national police officers both claim the emails from British cops were
misleading and that a full dossier on King did not arrive until after
he was arrested in
September, 2003. At this time, the Spanish interior ministry announced
it would create a database to share information between national police
and the Guardia Civil. The plans are yet to be put in place. Murderer
King beat, stripped and strangled Sonia Carabantes with her own T-shirt
before burying her under stones.
Last week, as expected, he appeared before a Fuengirola court charged
with the murder of au pair Rocio Wanninkhof, who had her throat cut and
was stabbed 21 times in October, 1999. He will face a judge and jury next
spring and is expected to plead not guilty. At a preliminary hearing King’s
defence lawyer called for a stay in
the proceedings, telling the court, “only one clue, a cigarette
butt with his DNA on it, implicates him”.
Councils in culture clash
party, the CC, over the lack of activities in the municipality’s cultural centres. She said all the area’s cultural centres had many activities going on, while those in Guia de Isora and Alcala were fully booked. “In fact”, she said, “there are times when we can’t find space to stage events”. Dismissing the attack as political point-scoring,Brito went on: “If
the Coalition Canaria party are so interested in culture, why is it that neither he Tenerife nor the Canary Islands governments (both CCcontrolled) have contributed as much as a red cent to the auditorium in Guia de Isora, although both have been asked on several occasions?”
A question of parking
WHAT
happened to the 500 underground car parking spaces promised for Los Gigantes?
The question was posed last week by Inocencio Doble Gonzalez, secretary
of the socialist Psc- PSOE of Santiago del Teide. And he asked it directly
of mayor Juan Damian Gorrin Ramos, who announced the plans in April, 2001,
when he was still deputymayor. Doble included the question in a fierce attack on the ruling Coalicion Canaria party over broken
promises and failure to improve tourism in the area.
He said Gorrin boasted in 2001 that he had met with the island vice president to discuss plans for the new car park.
“But,” he said, “we would like to know if these plans still exist or whether it was just another piece of CC propaganda that we have been accustomed to in this municipality. We have certainly heard nothing of them since.”
Doble also reminded the mayor of a request in September to remove property sales offices that were taking up several street parking spaces near the post office in Puerto Santiago. “That request seems to have fallen on deaf ears,” he said. Accusing the council of ignoring the tourist area’s desperate need for parking spaces, he also attacked the failure to do anything positive to help promote small businesses over the Christmas period.
He compared the municipality unfavourably with neighbouring Guia de Isora, which encourages people to shop locally by offering raffles and prize draws through shops.
“When will our council do something to stimulate retail trade and prove that they are not simply interested in collecting taxes from the businesses?” he asked.