Ley Departamental N° 193 (La Paz, 9 September 2020)
The departmental law that preceded the national one. Transcribed from the official PDF; the file is published below.
Note one clause in particular: Article 6 required a clinical study within 45 working days.
Identifying data
Instrument
Ley Departamental N° 193 — «Ley que autoriza la producción, distribución y uso del
dióxido de cloro (CDS) para la prevención, atención y tratamiento del COVID-19 en el departamento de La Paz»
Date
9 September 2020
Promulgated by
Félix Patzi Paco, Ph.D., Gobernador del Departamento de La Paz
Sanctioned by
Asamblea Legislativa Departamental de La Paz
Relation to national law
Precedes Ley N° 1351 (14 October 2020). Two instruments, one departmental and one national.
What it establishes, article by article
Art. 1 (Object). Quality control and distribution for compassionate use and consumption of CDS, and to
authorise it «como agua mineral» voluntarily and with consent.
Art. 2 (Scope). Applies in first- and second-level health centres and third-level hospitals of the
87 municipalities of the department of La Paz under SEDES, and in private or agreement centres that request it, voluntarily.
Art. 3 (Definition). Describes CDS as a «agua mineral» resulting from the combination of sodium chlorite at 28%
with hydrochloric acid at 4%, applied with consent, manifest will and prior information to the patient.
Art. 4 (Authorisation and control). Authorises the departmental government to sign agreements with universities
and private laboratories for production; free distribution in SEDES centres; municipalities may purchase directly; sale of
unauthorised product is prohibited, and public sale may take place through legally established pharmacies.
Art. 5 (Compassionate-use protocol). SEDES, with academic or scientific institutions, applies a compassionate-use
protocol as a measure prior to clinical studies.
Art. 6 (Clinical study). «…de manera simultánea a la aplicación del Protocolo de Uso Compasivo… en el lapso de
45 días hábiles, realizará un Estudio Clínico en base a la Norma de Estudios Clínicos… así también deberá asignar un presupuesto
destinado a cubrir el costo del Estudio Clínico.»
Art. 7 (Training). SEDES must train medical staff in the compassionate-use protocol.
Art. 8 (Budget). The departmental budget guarantees compliance, with funds reassigned under National Law No. 1307.
The clause that changes the argument. Article 6 does not merely permit use: it ordered a clinical study
to be carried out within 45 working days and funded. That converts a political dispute into a factual one with a documentary answer:
Was that study carried out? If it was, its results are the most important clinical evidence in existence on CDS, and
they are being ignored by everyone. If it was not, then the failure lies with the authorities who legislated the obligation and did
not execute it — which is a different finding from "the substance does not work".
This register states plainly that it does not know the answer. The study has not been located. It is the single most
valuable document anyone could produce on this subject.
A note on terminology
Article 3 calls CDS «agua mineral». That wording is legally consequential and scientifically loose: chlorine dioxide solution is
not mineral water. Critics will use it, and they are entitled to. The defensible reading is that the departmental assembly used a
consumer-facing category to place the product outside medicines regulation, which is precisely what the national law later tried to
do more precisely through consented use.