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

Track patients addicted to prescription drugs, home affairs committee tells GPs Report calls for immediate steps as it is revealed there are as many as 1.5 million people dependent on tranquillisers.

GPs should start anonymously tracking patients addicted to prescription drugs in the face of estimates that there are as many as 1.5 million people dependent on tranquillisers, MPs have said.

The Commons home affairs committee says that the scale of addiction to prescription drugs in Britain is far greater than those who are in treatment programmes for illegal drugs.

But the MPs say in a report published on Friday that there is an urgent need to overcome the complete lack of data on the misuse and supply of prescription drugs for non-medical purposes.

"Immediate steps need to be taken to introduce a system whereby anonymous data can be collated to fully understand where the problem lies," says the cross-party committee's report.

The MPs concern over the growing use of prescription drugs for non-medical purposes follows their visit to the USA during their major drugs inquiry earlier this year. Official drug use surveys show that nearly one-third of drug users over the age of 12 in America started with a prescription drug, and prescription drug overdoses now kill more Americans than cocaine and heroin combined.

The MPs say that they are concerned that the powers to prosecute doctors and healthcare professionals for illegally supplying prescription drugs exist in the USA but not in Britain. They claim that the low prosecution rate of doctors and nurses in the UK who "assist in the diversion" of prescription drugs means they can supply them without fear of prosecution.

"The abuse of these types of substances is taking place in the shadows and its extent is still unquantified," said the committee's chairman, Keith Vaz. "Local GPs need to report their suspicions and collate information to illuminate this problem. If we do not act the catastrophic consequences of tomorrow can be seen in the US today," he said. The report cites work by the all-party parliamentary group on involuntary tranquilliser addiction as its source of the estimate that 1.5 million people are addicted to these type of drugs.

The report also highlights the MPs concerns over the continued growth of the market for "legal highs"or new psychoactive substances. It describes figures showing that 'legal highs' have been mentioned as a factor in 52 deaths in 2012 compared with 29 in 2011 as "an epidemic" and says it demands urgent action by the government.

New chemical versions of the 'legal highs' are being produced at the rate of one a week in an attempt to circumvent moves by government's to ban them.

The MPs say that new legislation should be introduced that puts the onus on those supplying the "killer substances" to prove that they are harmless before they can be sold. The committee also wants to see on-site testing labs set up by the police at festivals across Britain next year to facilitate the removal of harmful or illegal substances from the site immediately.

"It has taken the government a year to produce five pages of guidance on the use of alternative legislation. This slow response to the crisis may have led to more deaths. Those who sell these killer substances need to be held responsible," said Vaz. The Guardian