The most serious, deadly, addictive drug abuse in the UK is from legal prescription drugs.
The Public Health Minister for England has told the BBC she will ‘act quickly’ to put services in place for addicts withdrawing from prescription tranquilliser drugs.
An investigation by Radio 4’s Face the Facts reveals prescription numbers in England for benzodiazepines – a group of tranquillisers commonly prescribed for insomnia and anxiety – are rising, and there's little help for those who become addicted and want to withdraw. This is incredible because we know the dreadful scourge of mass addiction that resulted from benzo use in the sixties.
Estimates suggest up to one and a half million people across the UK could be addicted to these drugs. Yet in England, the number of prescriptions issued last year rose by 8 per cent to almost eleven and a half million.
Guidelines first issued to GPs in 1988 say that the drugs, which include diazepam and temazapam, shouldn’t be given to patients for longer than 2 to 4 weeks.
Yet a report published in May, which looked at prescribing in England for the 19 years to 2009, found over a third of prescriptions were for more than 8 weeks. And for those who become addicted, and want to withdraw, the investigation found there are few treatment services available.
Dr Clare Gerada, the Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, told the programme benzodiazepines are effective drugs and that she was confident GPs are prescribing safely and sensibly. Dr Gerada is not the most reliable 'expert' on either drugs legal or illegal.
More convincingly the respected Public Health Minister and former health professional Anne Milton admitted prescription drug addiction was an issue that’s ‘fallen through the cracks’. She promised the Department of Health would now ‘get a grip’ of it by working with GPs to raise awareness and get the right services in place to aid withdrawal.
You can hear more on Radio 4's Face the Facts<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tmlp>: Prescribed Addiction at 1230 BST on Wednesday 27th July, repeated at 2100 BST on Sunday 31st July
Short Sea Shipping
Searching for new fascinating facts for the new edition of my book Commons Knowledge – How to be a backbencher’ I was kindly reminded of a debate extract that I put on You Tube.
It stars former MP Keith Hill in his foulest hour. He wrestles with the challenge of saying "Short Sea Shipping” eighteen times. He neglected to read the speech that the civil servants had written for him. The horror struck as he realised the danger of mis-saying Short Sea Shipping. The video has had more than 50,000 hits. I challenge anyone to watch it without laughing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb1rY71zZUk
Traffic doom
A hideous fire in Newport Brynglas Tunnel today will cripple the westbound tunnel. The resultant delays on the M4 and additional traffic in Newport are nightmare prospects. The accident proves the fragility of the M4 as the only main artery for traffic into South Wales.
There is no possible swift solution.
I heard a discussion about these drugs on the radio and was disappointed to hear them referring to the facilities that are there for all drug addicts as being unsuitable.
You know they are and I know they are, unsuitable and ineffective, but to the people in the discussion the unsuitability was purely about rubbing shoulders with people who were addicted to "illegal" pharmaceuticals.
Instead we apparently should have two tiers, one for, as the programme specifically mentioned "housewives" and the other for I presume "scum".
It's another version of the deserving and the undeserving, like the poor, or like good aids and bad aids, and keeping that attitude will exacerbate the problems we create in our society by having addictive drugs used by some illegal and addictive drugs used by others being those for respectable people, which are prescribed and next to free as opposed to the price of heroin for example which you cannot get now on the NHS, despite it being incredibly useful in getting people off heroin, and more effective than any other method at getting people off street drugs, as the last trial demonstrated.
Posted by: HuwOS | July 27, 2011 at 06:08 PM
Thanks Huw. I share your reservations entirely. I know this group well and chaired a hearing of evidence about the lack of action or help. Making the comparison does not strengthen the case. It's astonishing that the number of prescriptions are increasing. Is it for the convenience of GPs to deal with surgery queues or increasing profits for GPs
Posted by: Paul Flynn | July 28, 2011 at 08:42 AM
Re: Traffic doom
I've used the Coldra roundabout twice a day to get to work since the fire, using both the SDR and Chepstow Rd to travel between the city centre and on to the A40, and so far I haven't noticed any significant delay. Happy days.
Posted by: D.G. | July 28, 2011 at 10:10 AM