Françoise Porchet and her colleagues write:

[In the Maghreb], the distribution of opioids is subject to the ‘seven day law’; in other words, doctors are not allowed to issue prescriptions for periods in excess of one week. Therefore, patients or their families have to return to the physician regularly to obtain a new prescription. Morphine is very expensive and only available in sustained-release form.³

The International Narcotics Control Board⁴ has published the following figures for the consumption of narcotic drugs in Tunisia (2002): codeine 272 kg; morphine 16 kg; pholcodine 15 kg; ethylmorphine 66; dextropropoxyphene 1087 kg; pethidine 5 kg.

For the years 2000-2002, the average defined daily dose consumption of morphine for statistical purposes (S-DDD)⁵ in Tunisia was 37. This compares with other African countries as follows: Swaziland 1; Egypt 2; Uganda 4; Zimbabwe 13; Namibia 73; South Africa 103. Twenty nine countries reported no morphine consumption during 2000-2002 (Table 1).

Table 1 Average daily consumption of defined daily doses (for statistical purposes) of morphine per million inhabitants, 2000-2002: countries of Africa

Source: International Narcotics Control Board Narcotic Drugs: Estimated World Requirements for 2004. Statistics for 2002. New York: United Nations, 2004.