Prescription drug abuse on the rise
The World Today - Monday, 12 March , 2007 12:29:00
Reporter: Jane Cowan
ELEANOR HALL: It's usually illicit drugs that capture the headlines but research in Melbourne shows it is the abuse of prescription drugs that should be arousing real concern across the nation.
And it is a problem that's growing internationally, with the United Nations warning that the abuse and trafficking of prescription drugs is set to outstrip illicit drug abuse.
In Melbourne, Jane Cowan reports.
JANE COWAN: When Melbourne's Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre began collecting data from ambulance records, heroin was the drug researchers were worried about.
But the Centre's Associate Professor Paul Dietze says the statistics have exposed another unexpected problem.
PAUL DIETZE: The thing that really stood out for us was that these other drug-related attendances we're actually quite prevalent, and some particular types of drugs were actually as prevalent as heroin, even in that kind of peak period of the heroin glut in the late 1990s.
JANE COWAN: The study of more than 6,000 call-outs over 12-months from February 2005, found that overdoses on over the counter or prescription drugs, like Valium and paracetamol, were twice as common as overdoses caused by illicit drugs.
And while men tend to favour illicit drugs and alcohol, women were the main offenders when it came to the abuse of legal drugs.
PAUL DIETZE: It varies by the type of drug. So if you look at paracetamol, for example, it's often younger women who are taking these in large quantities.
And if you look at the prescription drugs, such as Valium, it's often the older women in the suburbs of Melbourne who are taking these drugs in excessive quantities.
JANE COWAN: It's a problem that's emerging worldwide.
The United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board published a report this month that warned the abuse of prescription drugs had already surpassed the abuse of traditional drugs of choice, like heroin and cocaine, in some parts of the world.
In the United States, the abuse of drugs like painkillers and tranquillisers now exceeds the abuse of practically all illicit drugs except cannabis.
In Scandinavia, illicit demand for the sedative Rohypnol has created the problem of counterfeiting.
Gino Vumbaca is the Executive Officer for the Australian National Council on Drugs, which is the main drug advisory group for the Australian Government.
He says pharmaceuticals have always been abused to some degree and it's unclear whether the latest research reflects a relative decline in the use of illicit drugs or whether the misuse of prescription medication is genuinely on the rise.
GINO VUMBACA: Often people talk about, you know, like the war on drugs or the battle against drugs. It's nothing like that.
What it is, is it's a matter of just moving with what's happening with the times and trends, and it's not something you're going to win and it'll end.
This is something we live with and we deal with and address as appropriately and as best we can.
JANE COWAN: Where in the whole process is it best to act, do you think? Is it at the point of writing the prescription that things need to change?
GINO VUMBACA: Well that's obviously one area, yes, yes. But look, often there is no single strategy or program or policy that's going to address a drug use problem, and you know, you're going to need, at the prescription level with GPs, you're going to need it, you're going to need public education as well, and you're going to need some education and information for people using the drugs about the dangers and the potential for addiction dependence.
And more importantly, the dangers for overdose, particularly when it's mixed with alcohol.
JANE COWAN: The Australian Federal Police was today unable to say whether trafficking of prescription drugs and counterfeiting was a problem in Australia.
The UN advises governments to systematically collect data on seized pharmaceuticals and include the abuse of legal drugs in any drug research.
ELEANOR HALL: Jane Cowan reporting.
