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In Bern, asylum seekers consume large quantities of the painkiller pregabalin. The consequences: The police are overwhelmed.
The small ski jump in Bern offers the best views, is located right next to the Federal Palace and – it has been a popular drug trafficking point for a long time. But now a new drug is causing unrest in the scene and worrying authorities and experts: Pregabalin.
Legend: Whether cannabis, cocaine or pregabalin: If you are looking for drugs in the city of Bern, you can get them at the small ski jump, among other places. SRF/Switzerland Current
Pregabalin is a medication used to treat epilepsy, anxiety, and nerve pain. If used correctly it won’t cause any problems. But: If the dosage is too high, it has an intoxicating, euphoric effect and, above all, is addictive. Anyone who consumes too much or is in withdrawal quickly becomes aggressive. And this is where the problem begins for the city of Bern.
Asylum seekers under the influence of medication
Because: Pregabalin is being consumed more and more frequently by asylum seekers from North African countries. This leads to them behaving more aggressively. The cantonal police confirmed to SRF that they had to intervene several times on the small ski jump and confiscate Pregabalin.
Silvio Flückiger, head of the Bernese Pinto intervention group, also made this observation. He regularly looks to the right on the small jump. “Some are euphoric, others are absent, but when you talk to them they suddenly become aggressive.”
Legend: Unlike in Switzerland, pregabalin is available without a prescription in the North African countries of origin of the asylum seekers. SRF/Switzerland Current
Dealing with this unpredictability is difficult – and sometimes dangerous. Most of the people Flückiger interacts with carry a knife. “We have to expect them to pull this out at any time,” he says. This has already happened to him twice. Presumably because those affected were “out of sorts,” as Flückiger says, and were suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
It’s like coke, it goes straight to your head.
An asylum seeker whom SRF meets at the small ski jump describes the withdrawal symptoms as follows: “If I don’t have a capsule for two days, then I become restless and sad.” The powder in the capsules is snorted. “It hits you like coke, it goes straight to your head.”
Smuggled from France
Pregabalin requires a prescription. However, it has recently stopped being handed out in asylum centers, says Samuel Wyss, spokesman for the State Secretariat for Migration, to SRF – precisely because it is addictive. “We found that people who did not have access to these medications became very aggressive. “It was also dealt with inside and outside the centers.”
Pregabalin – that’s what the psychiatrist says
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Philipp Pfeifer is medical director of the Addiction Psychiatry Center at the University Psychiatric Services in Bern and says about Pregabalin:
- “Asylum seekers often use pregabalin because they know the drug from their homeland. In North African countries, the drug is used as a recreational drug and is addictive.”
- «Pregabalin strengthens the basic state of being. It actually has a relaxing effect, but if someone is tense, it can also increase the tension.”
- “Pregabalin is only prescribed to people who have had documented previous medical treatment.”
It’s no longer that easy to get pregabalin these days; the medication requires a prescription. And yet it is still in circulation. When asked, the Swiss Medicines Institute Swissmedic wrote that checks had shown that a large part of the pregabalin was being smuggled into Switzerland from France or North Africa.
Prioritize asylum procedures
Well – anyone who uses intoxicants needs money. And asylum seekers usually obtain this illegally. The crime statistics from the Bern cantonal police also testify to this: in 2023 there were significantly more thefts, burglaries and violence, especially around the Bern train station.
So what to do? The Bernese security director Reto Nause has clear words for this: “We have to prioritize the asylum procedures of these people. Quick decisions are needed. And once these are felled, we have to remove those affected.” However, the city, the canton and the federal government would have to work together to achieve this.