Track patients addicted to prescription drugs, property affairs committee tells GPs

Report says scale of addiction to prescription medicines in Britain is greater than those getting remedy for illegal drug use. Photograph: Corbis

GPs ought to begin anonymously monitoring individuals addicted to prescription medication in the encounter of estimates that there are as a lot of as one.five million people dependent on tranquillisers, MPs have explained.

The Commons property affairs committee says that the scale of addiction to prescription medication in Britain is far higher than people who are in remedy programmes for illegal drugs.

But the MPs say in a report published on Friday that there is an urgent need to have to overcome the comprehensive lack of data on the misuse and provide of prescription medication for non-health-related functions.

“Quick measures need to have to be taken to introduce a technique whereby anonymous information can be collated to completely realize the place the issue lies,” says the cross-get together committee’s report.

The MPs concern above the growing use of prescription drugs for non-healthcare purposes follows their check out to the USA during their key drugs inquiry earlier this 12 months. Official drug use surveys present that virtually one particular-third of drug customers in excess of the age of 12 in America commenced with a prescription drug, and prescription drug overdoses now kill a lot more Americans than cocaine and heroin mixed.

The MPs say that they are concerned that the powers to prosecute physicians and healthcare pros for illegally supplying prescription drugs exist in the USA but not in Britain. They claim that the lower prosecution fee of medical doctors and nurses in the Uk who “aid in the diversion” of prescription drugs implies they can provide them without dread of prosecution.

“The abuse of these kinds of substances is taking location in the shadows and its extent is even now unquantified,” explained the committee’s chairman, Keith Vaz. “Neighborhood GPs need to have to report their suspicions and collate info to illuminate this dilemma. If we do not act the catastrophic consequences of tomorrow can be observed in the US nowadays,” he stated. The report cites function by the all-get together parliamentary group on involuntary tranquilliser addiction as its source of the estimate that one.five million men and women are addicted to these sort of medicines.

The report also highlights the MPs issues over the continued growth of the industry for “legal highs” or new psychoactive substances. It describes figures showing that ‘legal highs’ have been talked about as a element in 52 deaths in 2012 in contrast with 29 in 2011 as “an epidemic” and says it demands urgent action by the government.

New chemical versions of the ‘legal highs’ are becoming made at the price of one particular a week in an attempt to circumvent moves by government’s to ban them.

The MPs say that new legislation need to be introduced that puts the onus on those supplying the “killer substances” to show that they are harmless ahead of they can be offered. The committee also needs to see on-internet site testing labs set up by the police at festivals across Britain subsequent 12 months to facilitate the elimination of hazardous or unlawful substances from the website right away.

“It has taken the government a year to create 5 pages of advice on the use of substitute legislation. This slow response to the crisis may have led to much more deaths. Individuals who sell these killer substances want to be held responsible,” mentioned Vaz.

Track patients addicted to prescription drugs, property affairs committee tells GPs