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NEWS: Advertiser - 01/02/07 'Drug prompts eating binge' (Stilnox)

Robbery defence cites Stilnox
Mark Oberhardt
April 04, 2007 12:00am

TWO former NSW policemen who robbed a Brisbane hotel of more than $63,000 were taking the controversial sleeping tablet Stilnox at the time, a court was told yesterday.

In the District Court in Brisbane, Wayne Alfred Duckworth, 47, and Brett Terence Gale, 44, pleaded guilty to robbery in company with violence, on November 5 last year. The trial of a third man will be heard at a later date.

Gale, who spent seven years in the NSW police force, is a former first-grade NSW rugby league identity who played for Wests and Eastern Suburbs in Sydney and the Australian Schoolboys.

Duckworth spent 17 years in the NSW police force including a stint in the armed robbery squad.

Prosecutor Julie Aylward told the court that Gale was married to a third former policeman's cousin and that man was working at the Park Ridge Tavern, on Brisbane's southern outskirts.

She detailed how Gale and the hotel worker had discussed at length robbing the hotel.

Mrs Aylward said Gale recruited Duckworth and arranged to wait outside the hotel until the worker gave them a signal by turning off the Fourex beer sign over the tavern.

She said at 1.25am the pair, armed with metal bars, threatened two female staff and the other man, forcing them to open the safe, before fleeing with $63,000 in cash.

Police later interviewed the worker who admitted Gale was one of the robbers.

The man later told police he had conspired with Gale to rob the tavern and had earlier tried to call off the robbery but Gale had said it was too late.

Mrs Aylward said all but $1000 of the money was recovered.

"It is a tragic fall from grace to have gone from investigating crime to being involved in committing a serious crime," she said.

Barrister Steve Zillman, for Gale, said at the time his client was under considerable stress and had also a diagnosed grief disorder after the death of his brother.

He said Gale was taking Stilnox to help him sleep and the drug had recently received publicity for being the possible cause of erratic behaviour.

Mr Zillman said his client had no previous convictions and shown remorse by writing a letter of apology to the female victims.

Barrister Charlie Bagley, for Duckworth, said his client had been suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and was in financial difficulties.

He said Duckworth had also been taking Stilnox at the time. Judge Kerry O'Brien adjourned the sentence until next Wednesday.
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Courier Mail
 
^^ lol

"..and next week on today tonight, The Stilnox epidemic!"
 
Warning upgrade for controversial sleeping pill
By Jane Bunce
April 05, 2007 04:58pm

AUSTRALIA'S medicines authority has ordered the manufacturer of a controversial sleeping pill to upgrade its warning about mixing the pills with alcohol following reports of bizarre and dangerous behaviour.

More than 500 complaints about Stilnox have been made to the national drug hotline, including reports of sleepwalkers crashing cars, falling off balconies, smoking, painting and having sex after popping a pill.

Manufacturer Sanofi-aventis says a relationship between the drug and strange behaviour has not been scientifically established.

But it has agreed to a request from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to upgrade the current warning about mixing the medicine with alcohol.

"We will amend the product information as requested by the TGA even though the potential adverse events with alcohol are already described in the current... patient information," Sanofi-aventis medical director Dr Gordon Hirsch said today.

The company would also introduce other educational initiatives aimed at reinforcing appropriate use of the pill, he said.

Dr Hirsch said it was difficult to determine with certainty whether the pill had caused the bizarre sleep-related behaviour or if it was spontaneous or resulted from an underlying condition.

"The potential for complex sleep-related behaviour including sleepwalking, as well as hallucinations and amnesia is already reflected in the product information and the consumer medicines information," he said, adding that available evidence suggested the adverse events were uncommon.

Stilnox is used to treat short-term insomnia, a condition that affects more than six million Australians, the company said.

A TGA spokeswoman said an expert committee was examining whether warnings on the packets should be upgraded.

Health Minister Tony Abbott today said he had no reason to think the matter was not being carefully and appropriately monitored by the TGA.

"I'm confident that the TGA's capable of a scaled reaction to any problems that might become apparent," he said in Sydney today.

The upgrade comes as Australian lawyers report being approached by several people wanting to take action against the pharmaceutical company following adverse reactions to the pills.

Slater and Gordon partner Tim Hammond said his law firm was trawling event reports for "a number" of prospective clients affected by the prescription medication.

The Adverse Medical Events Line is receiving up to 40 calls a day relating to Stilnox side-effects.

Senior pharmacist Geraldine Moses said most involved home sleepwalkers who had woken in the morning "with cuts and bruises and no idea what's happened".

But multiple cases involved serious injury, broken bones after falling from buildings, crashing cars and "self-harming" with knives.

And earlier this week, a court heard one of two former NSW policemen who violently robbed a Brisbane hotel of more than $63,000 had been taking Stilnox.
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news.com.au
 
xcidium said:
I can't beleive they've only had 102 reports of hallucinations. Obviously everyone had forgotten they were talking to the lamp by the time they'd woken up.
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Does stilnox make you hallucinate?? Last night I was experiencing the residual effects of a trip plus I was crashing off whiz, so I decided to take 2 stilnox to get to sleep. In about 15 minutes the intensity of the trip jumped again and it felt sort of like I had taken a bit of k on top of the trip. Really weird. Still good tho, got to sleep no worries.
 
R.I.P. Johnno. the good die young mate.

i went to a good mates funeral one month ago. he fell off a 12th floor balcony whilst sleep walking after taking Stilnox. He fell at 7am.

just becareful guys if you take this shit. i lost a mate of 15yrs because of Stilnox.

:(
 
Far out, sorry to hear mate. That's not good at all.. :(

As I said we need some research to see what stilnox can be mixed with to stop these midnight sleep walk episodes. Or something you can test for or something to see if you're more prone to this type of behaviour.
 
I must admit I had my first interesting experience on Stilnox the other night. I was in a horrible mood, I got home late and decided I wanted to go straight to sleep so I took 2 10mg stilnox.

Within half an hour I had gotten out of bed gone out into the living room, smoked a cone with my housemates who were still up and then went and played my mates Guitar Hero game on Xbox360... I have no idea why I did this and only have a partial memory of anything.. I think I fell asleep at my mates desk and ended up crawling to bed some how.

This was the first time I've had 20mg in one go though so I'm putting it down to that.. I think I'll just stick to the single one from now on
 
Stilnox cops jailed for violent armed robbery
April 11, 2007 11:41am

TWO former NSW anti-theft squad police officers who used the controversial sleeping pill Stilnox as a defence have been jailed over a violent armed robbery at a Queensland tavern.

Former detective Wayne Alfred Duckworth, 47, of the Gold Coast, and fellow former officer Brett Terence Gale, 44, of Sandgate in Brisbane's north, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court to robbery in company with personal violence.

Both men worked in the NSW police anti-theft squad for several months.

Justice Kerry O'Brien today described the heist early on November 5 last year as "a serious example of its type".

He sentenced both men to four years' jail, but suspended Gale's sentence after 12 months and Duckworth's after 10 months.

The court was earlier told that Gale and Duckworth, wearing balaclavas and wielding a bike pump and metal bar, robbed the Park Ridge Tavern south of Brisbane.

Gale forced a female employee to the ground and held the metal bar to her head, while Duckworth taped another's hands together.

A male tavern employee, whose hands were also bound, allegedly plotted the robbery with Gale, who then recruited Duckworth.

Justice O'Brien He described the offence as "obviously premeditated".

"It must have been a terrifying experience for them (the women)," Justice O'Brien said.

More than $63,000 was stolen in the robbery, most of which has been recovered.

Justice O'Brien said he accepted that Gale and Duckworth had been under financial strain at the time and that Gale was suffering from a major depressive disorder and Duckworth a post-traumatic stress disorder.

He said Gale's use of substances at the time affected his "process of reason and judgment".

Defence lawyers told the court during sentencing submissions last week that both men were taking Stilnox at the time, a drug linked to episodes of bizarre behaviour while asleep in some patients.
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News.com.au
 
fucking bullshit...bretty had a gambling problem

^^^don't believe that cop out! :)

both of them had run up massive gambling debts. how do i know? i was loosely associated with one of these gits many many years ago. Stilnox was used as a piss weak defense argument.

remember...Stilnox makes you sleep walk. It doesn't make you rob fucking pubs when you're wide awake. 8(
 
I'm just about to go on some form of sleeping medication, but this shit sounds way too weird to even go near. Might stick to valium...
 
It's not wise to become dependant on any sleeping med, even stilnox which doesn't have the same addictiveness of valium (people using valium for sleep often up their doses a lot, and also start using iot through out the day, and become addicted) Stilnox is pretty awesome for sleep.. For me it is like mixing 2mg of clonazepam, 20mg of valium and 0.5mg of xanax and drinking a bottle of wine and a few beers. That same forced knock out and not waking up until morning, sometimes a woozxyness for half an hour or an hour but generally feeling okay. I wish G had no rebound because that is by far the best sleeping med, such deep sleeps... for 2 hourss.. then u wake up needing more.
 
haha around easter time i had a cpl of stilnox b4 bed , woke up in the mornin and found id eaten a shitload of easte eggs in the middle of the night, was wrappers all round the room , thats prob the only wierd thing iv done on them, wel that i know of
 
My friend took a couple of Stilnox to go to sleep and the next morning he woke up and he had trashed his entire house. Everything was everywhere. He had smashed glasses against the walls and stabbed his fridge repeatedly with a knife so hard there was holes in it.

Oh and on the funny side he also had a unicycle next to him. He has no idea how it got there.
 
More warnings for sleeping pill Stilnox
November 28, 2007 - 5:15PM

The controversial sleeping pill Stilnox will be sold in smaller packs, carrying extra warnings of potential "rage reactions".

This follows alarming reports of bizarre sleep time behaviour.

Australia's medicines regulator has announced that extra warnings will be stamped on the product information after hundreds of adverse reactions to the medication, including driving, having sex, fighting and binge eating from the fridge while apparently asleep.

The updated warning released by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) now mentions less common side-effects as "rage reactions, worsened insomnia, confusion, agitation, hallucinations and other forms of unwanted behaviour".

It also warns of "sleep walking, driving motor vehicles, preparing and eating food, making phone calls or having sexual intercourse" while asleep and on the drug.

"People experiencing these effects have had no memory of the events," the warning states.

The regulator warned that these reactions could occur among both first-time and regular users, when taken at the recommended dosage and without alcohol in the system.

It also said pack sizes had been reduced to limit exposure to these "worrying and potentially dangerous adverse effects".

"From 31st December 2007, no packs containing greater than 14 tablets will be distributed in Australia," the TGA said.

"The TGA encourages doctors not to prescribe, and pharmacists not to dispense more than a single pack at one time."

The popular sleeping tablet, known generically as zolpidem, hit headlines in February when the TGA's adverse events monitoring body, the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee, alerted prescribers to a number of adverse neurological and psychiatric reactions.

A national drug reactions hotline fielded 500 calls from Stilnox users who reported odd behaviours from crashing cars to falling from balconies after popping a pill.

One patient gained 23 kilograms over seven months after unknowingly eating from the refrigerator while asleep. Another patient woke up with a paintbrush in her hand after painting the front door.

The manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis has said it was difficult to establish whether these behaviours were triggered by the drug, or were "spontaneous" or caused by an underlying condition.

Meanwhile, the regulator's statement warns people to use Stilnox "for as short a period as possible, at the lowest dose possible".

"The TGA remains concerned about reports of adverse reactions with zolpidem use and continues to work with its expert advisory committees, international regulatory authorities, healthcare professionals, consumers and the companies providing zolpidem in Australia to closely monitor the safety of this medicine."
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SMH
 
One of the morning hosts on Melbourne radio show 'Nova' said she was going to take stilnox in her timeslot tomorrow to see what 'really' happens. I believe they fielded calls today from teens who use stillnox recreationally.
 
I've always wanted to go to a GP to try and get a script for these in the hope that I get all of my work done during the night, wake up and get to take the day off ;)
 
^I still get twenty packs prescribed, specially now that there is the generic. I hate zolpidem though, it has the shortest subjective half-life of any drug I've used, and makes me feel EXTREMELY dirty. I have defintely gone bonkers, imagining people around me who weren't etc. but I thought I was asleep.
 
it used to send me to sleep. then it wasn't working at all so i decided not to bother anymore. after a 6 month break from it i got a 20 pack a few days ago. it still doesnt send me to sleep. i lay i n bed and waited and half hour later just felt retarted. stumbled outside to smoke and started to remember what it was like. it also makes me really crook in the guts every time i take it. fucking exspensive too.
 
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