Pharmacies in Paris and its suburbs closed for several hours on February 11 as a mark of respect for a murdered colleague who was stabbed to death while closing her suburban pharmacy on February 5.
The murder was the latest incident following the death in October, 1999, of another pharmacist at Cachan, in the southern suburbs, and several attacks in other run-down city areas in January.
French pharmaceutical unions, including the recently formed Action Pharmaceutique Libérale D'Union Syndicale (APLUS) (PJ, October 9, 1999, p559) are now calling on the government to increase public security in all sensitive areas. The union is also pressing for some of the rules concerning drug storage to be changed.
According to Mr Marc Mackie (vice-president, APLUS), much of the recent violence has been from drug addicts searching for products which, by law, are locked away in safes, often at the rear of pharmacies. Several of the recent incidents involved addicts threatening pharmacists with knives and pitbull terriers to open the safe. The pharmacy unions now want the storage requirement relaxed so that pharmacists are less likely to be held hostage.