Proper use of controlled drugs urged

The health authorities have urged healthcare professionals across the country to improve the clinical application and administration of narcotics and other specially controlled medicines, in the latest move to ensure medical quality and safety.

"These medicines can help people if used properly. But they can also cause dependence or even addiction if used improperly, which would seriously affect people's health," Zhao Minggang, deputy director of the medical administration department under the Ministry of Health (MOH), said at the launch of a training program in Beijing over the weekend.

The specially controlled medicines include narcotics, psychotropic substances, toxic drugs for medical use and radioactive drugs, according to China's Pharmaceutical Administration Law revised in 2001.