Junk Science? Number 69: Addiction to prescription drugs growing

Addiction to prescription drugs growing

Many of the UK’s adult population are addicted to prescription drugs, claims the Home office and the Department of Health and the death toll is rising. Last year 1.5 million were addicted to tranquillisers alone, and 807 people died from overdoses of prescription drugs. Most commonly abused prescriptions include painkillers like codeine and solpadeine, antidepressants like Ritalin, and anti-anxiety prescriptions like temazepam and diazepam.

This represents a 16% rise in 5 years; and some 32,000 people in the UK are thought to be addicted to painkillers alone! Jim Dobbin, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on addiction to tranquillisers said “This is worse than the use of illegal drugs because they are officially prescribed”.