The following facts are shocking. Being an ex-accountant I am always interested in figures (not to mention that prescribed benzodiazepine drug addiction has played such a major part in my life). The Home Office in the UK provides a yearly booklet on Statistics of the Misuse of Drugs, Deaths from Poisoning by Solid or Liquid Substances, Summary of Controlled Drug Deaths. Controlled drugs in the UK are put into Class A, (most dangerous) then Class B, then Class C.
The following figures are from 1990 to 1996 (except for 1994 where no death tables available ) for the United Kingdom. I collated them.
Class A Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Deaths
Heroin           291
Methadone           676
Cocaine          43
Morphine        467
Opiates          146
                   = 1,623 Deaths
Class C
Benzodiazepine Drugs ONLY   = 1,810 Deaths
Therefore benzodiazepine drugs accounted for more deaths than ALL the so-called hard drugs put together.
From 1997 the Office for National Statistics (ONS) where responsible for compiling drug deaths statistics. The recorded figures for Class A drugs then rocketed compared to the previous data collected by the Home Office and Class C drug benzodiazepines declined. I find this extremely disturbing in that a new British government was elected in 1997 and suddenly deaths from benzodiazepines showed a marked decrease. Either new criteria was devised by the collecting agency or the results were fudged and a cover up was put in place in order to put a much greater emphasis on deaths by illicit substances, compared to deaths from a doctor prescribed drug. Granted that all drugs can me bought on the black market but the Home Office death statistics are such a contrast to those that followed by the ONS.
The problems of prescribed benzodiazepine drugs has been constantly ignored in Britain by successive governments for decades and likewise the medical profession. It is only now that the British Medical Association (BMA) are finally asking for submissions of evidence of the dangers of addiction, quantification of the scale of the problem and how best to tackle this iatrogenic epidemic to produce a report and submission to ministers. Government and their Advisors have had over 40 years to sort out this Pandoraâs Box but they have been terrified of doing so.
Former Member of Parliament Mr Phil Woolas MP (Oldham East and Saddleworth ) summed up the situation perfectly in December 1999 at Westminster Hall, London, in a debate when he said
âThe story of benzodiazepines is of awesome proportions and has been described as a national scandal. The impact is so large that it is too big for Governments, regulatory authorities and the pharmaceutical industry to address head on, so the scandal has been swept under the carpet.â
15 years later it is still under the same carpet.
Every doctor who prescribes benzos for more than two weeks should be sued for malpractice. They are violating their own guidelines and nothing happens.
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we should begin with my board-certified ex-pdoc who kept me on them for over a decade. That sick fiend is still in practice. He laughed at me when I told him I wanted off of them so I taped off myself. There is a special place in hell for such as these. Wish we could make a “bad doc” list so people could avoid.
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Well, maybe we can… There are a lot of sites with reviews for different businesses and professionals including doctors. I see no reason why one should not make a specialised site like that for psychiatrists and psychologists.
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Thank you Engineer for your response.
Good people are fighting back against negligent doctors who for far too long have gone unchallenged and have drug damaged their patients, by over and mis prescribing mind altering drugs. Prescribing outside the guidelines. A ‘bad doc’ list would be a good start.
Take care,
Barry.
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Thank you B for your response. You are perfectly right.
The guidelines need to be made mandatory and enforceable by law because leaving enforcement to the medical profession will simply not work. Only mass suing of the prescribers and successful law suits will stop this global epidemic of prescribed benzodiazepine and z drug addiction. This malpractice has to be stopped.
Barry.
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Greetings Barry…
From what I gather, even law suits have done nothing to stop the PsychoPharma Goliaths from continuing to profit from the ravages benzos have caused in so many lives…
No..it is time to call for ‘restorative’ justice, where the manufacturers of benzodiazepines are ‘invited’ to FIX the chaos they have created…FAT CHANCE..maybe, but it could be done.
blessings, Marjorie Meret-Carmen, Bend, Oregon, USA
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Hi Marjorie,
Good to hear from you. I like the idea of ‘Restorative Justice’ for Big Pharma.
I have advocated that the UK Government place an annual tax on Big Pharma based on turnover, in order to fully fund dedicated withdrawal services and after care facilities for those patients who want to withdraw themselves from these highly addictive prescribed drugs. Plus to fund a 24 hour national helpline for those patients seeking advice and support.
For far too long world governments have deliberately ignored the warnings of damage that these drugs cause to the individual and to society. It is now time for Pharma to fulfil
their part of a social contract between corporate entities and patients, who have become
‘consumer fodder’ to big business after ingesting chemical drugs, which where only ever
intended to be marketed for very short term prescribing and usage.
God Bless,
Barry.
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