Bengaluru: The Kerala High Court Thursday stayed the state government’s decision allowing supply of alcohol to those with alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) provided they had a doctor’s prescription.
Calling it a “recipe for disaster”, the bench comprising Justices A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Shaji P. Chaly said, “We are concerned that the state government has taken a unilateral decision to administer more alcohol to persons suffering from alcohol withdrawal syndrome. This is a recipe for disaster.”
The court stayed the decision for three weeks after it heard petitions filed by Congress MP T.N. Prathapan, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association.
The petitioners had contended that alcohol cannot be prescribed as a treatment for those who are suffering from AWS.
Also read: Kerala Police probe finds role of ‘Islamic fundamentalist groups’ in migrant protest
The government order
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had announced the decision on 1 April.
According to the state government order, the Kerala Excise Department can supply three litres of alcohol a week to those who are able to produce a doctor’s certificate that says they are suffering from the syndrome.
The order further said that those suffering from the syndrome could approach any government doctor and if they get the prescription are then eligible to buy liquor from the Kerala State Beverages Corporation, the government’s liquor vending outlet. The patient will then get a single liquor pass to procure the prescribed amount of alcohol. The liquor was to be delivered to their home.
Also read: ‘All we saw was death, but doctors helped’: How Kerala couple, 93 and 88, was cured of Covid-19
Doctors had slammed decision
While the state government defended its order stating that there have been many suicides due to non-availability of alcohol during the national lockdown, the state’s doctors had been up in arms.
“It’s unethical,” said Dr Sulfi Nuhu, secretary IMA , Kerala. “If we prescribe liquor, there will be legal and medical repercussions. We will not prescribe it.”
ThePrint had earlier reported that the doctors in Kerala had even worn black badges to work in protest.
The Kerala chapter of the IMA had also written to Chief Minister Vijayan stating that “making a doctor recommend alcohol to a person is not ethical” and had urged the government to “reconsider its decision”.
“Alcohol withdrawal can be managed successfully using medications and we feel that asking doctors to recommend alcohol itself as the treatment of alcohol withdrawal would be sending a wrong message to the public,” the IMA letter read. “We worry that this would motivate many people to approach doctors to get ‘prescriptions’ for alcohol, leading to fraud and malpractice.”
But the government had stood its ground before the court decision Thursday.
Also read: This is how Kerala govt, police and residents are helping the poor and fighting Covid-19