A HEROIN shortage, the rise of the internet and a willingness by GPs to hand out prescriptions have led to a shocking rise in the availability of highly addictive sleeping pills on the black market, the chief executive of a Welsh drugs charity said yesterday.
Latest Home Office figures show the number of doses of the controversial drug benzodiazepines – nicknamed “benzos” – seized by a Welsh police force has risen from just 14,300 to 115,200 in just one year.
And Martin Blakebrough from the Newport and Powys-based charity Kaleidoscope said parts of Wales were now so flooded with the tablet, which is supposedly only available from GPs, that the problem is “out of control”.
Government data shows South Wales Police seized 24% of all benzodiazepine seizures in all of England and Wales.
Rev Martin Blakebrough said: “Benzos are now a major problem and a real cause for concern and this is predominantly down to a shortage of heroin.
“The shortage of heroin has meant users have moved to pharmaceutical-based drugs which in turn has led to dealers seeing a gap in the market which they can exploit and make money out of.
“Diazepines, such as valium, are a serious problem because they are cheap, freely available – especially on the internet – and people feel they know what they’re taking.”
The class of narcotics gained notoriety in the ’60s as the drug of choice of stressed housewives and even inspired the Rolling Stones single named after their popular nickname “mother’s little helper”.
Addicts to benzos are frequently said to suffer from anxiety, panic attacks, depression, insomnia, nightmares, hallucinations and psychosis.
The substance was what Abraham Biggs, 19, from Broward County, Florida, had taken when he took a fatal overdose and committed suicide live on the internet, in 2008.
Yet Rev Blakebrough said it was not just thrill seekers that were vulnerable to the dangers of benzos and added that people who started off using the drug legitimately were also at risk of becoming hooked.
“The problem is wider than the heroin shortage. It’s not just addicts or people who use the drug as part of a cocktail for recreational purposes but it’s the anxious or depressed person who goes to their GP for help.
“I am always of the view that prescribing drugs should be a last resort. For instance, a mother may be prescribed benzodiazepine for anxiety because she’s struggling with her young children but rather than give her drugs why not prescribe her childcare first?
“This is why GPs need to be more aware of the diazepines when it comes to prescribing them and the dangers of them entering the black market because they can easily become part of the cycle.”
Dr David Bailey, chairman of the Welsh GP committee, said GPs across Wales are conscious of the consequences of prescribing benzodiazepines.
He said: “Certainly there is a wide spread perception that benzodiazepines have been prescribed too freely but an awful lot has been done during the past 10 years or so and every GP is well aware of its dangers.
“It would be stupid to think that some of these don’t come from prescriptions but these things are freely available on the internet and you can even buy them wholesale.
“GPs face a dilemma when someone comes in for a prescription because they can’t assume people are lying through their teeth, they have to trust them but inevitably some are then sold on.
“There’s a big awareness of the problem, particularly in South Wales, where in less affluent areas people tend to buy these types of drugs because they are cheaper and easier to get hold of than heroin.”
Source http://www.walesonline.co.uk/
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