Is this ‘pharmageddon’?

We’ve seen celebrities brought low by Ambien, Stillnox, Imovane and Loprazolam (locally known as Zopivane, Zimovane, Zopiclone and Dormonoct): Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Eminem, Tiger Woods, Madonna, Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, the list goes on.

Controversial US physician, Dr Joseph Mercola, talks about ‘pharmageddon’: ‘[It’s] the prospect of a world in which medicines produce more ill- health than health, and when medical progress does more harm than good.’ It is no longer a prospect, he adds, but fully upon us. ‘Those most at risk of dying from this new drug crisis are people you would least expect: the death toll is highest among people in their 40s, but people of all ages, from teenagers to the elderly, and from all walks of life, are being affected. In fact, prescription drugs are now the preferred “high” for many, especially teens, as they’re typically used legally, which eliminates the stigma of being a junkie.’

There are no official records of how many South Africans abuse sleeping pills and sedatives, but if other countries’ stats are anything to go by, we have a problem on our hands. What we do know is that at least 10 million South Africans take sleeping aids on a long-term basis, something none of these pills is intended for.

Now it doesn’t sound like big pharma at the price (R165 for a box of 30 Zolpidem, for example), but it is. If one looks at the worldwide sales of Zolpidem for the year Bella was first prescribed it (2005), its manufacturers made $1 932 940 000* through 70 million sales. That’s a lot of people who are battling to sleep. And that’s just one of more than 200 makes of sleeping aids on the prescription market.

Prescription drugs can be as addictive as illegal drugs. In some cases there is no difference. For example, hydrocodone, a prescription opiate, is synthetic heroin. It’s indistinguishable from heroin to your brain and body. So if you’re hooked on hydrocodone, you are, in fact, a heroin addict.

Dr Mercola claims that ‘death by prescription medicine is a 21st-century epidemic, and the US’s “war” on drugs is directed at the wrong enemy’. Prescription drugs are now killing more people than street drugs, and the incidence is increasing, an analysis of recently released data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed.

Opioid prescribing is fuelling the epidemic. Today, nearly half of all US opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid. In 2015 alone, more than 15 000 people died from overdoses involving prescription opioids, and The Times analysis of 2009 death statistics (the most recent available) showed that for the first time ever in the US, more people were killed by prescription drugs than by non-drug-related motor vehicle accidents.

Over 37 450 people died from drugs, including prescription sleep, pain and anxiety medications, and 36 284 from traffic accidents while ‘sleep-driving’. In other words, sleep-driving, as Bella did, caused almost the same number of deaths as drug overdoses. Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, and more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69. Again, these fatalities are not mostly driven by illegal drugs. In 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, 46 471 people in the US died from drug overdoses; more than half of those deaths were caused by prescription meds.

But are the statistics comparable to SA’s? And are our doctors as guilty as their US counterparts? The answer would appear to be yes. And it’s a Catch-22 situation, says Bella’s GP, who prefers not to be named.

‘If we don’t assist with the prescription people ask us for, they find another doctor who will. And there is always someone who will, even pharmacists or doctors who don’t even see patients but work in other fields.’

As an ambulance medic and counsellor, I can attest to this. Opioids are exceedingly rife. That the first course of action on arrival at a medical scene or house has become rifling through drawers and dustbins to find the evidence, speaks for itself. Of course, addicts take other prescription medication – people swallow anything, from a box of heart medication to pills to lower blood pressure, which further complicates the job of medics and doctors.

Benzos and opioids are not restricted to the rich or those with medical aid: no matter which area ambulances enter, a quick look reveals that large portions of poor people also have easy access to sleeping pills. Last year I kept count of the homes that ambulances were dispatched to where there was prescription sleeping medication. The numbers pointed to more than 60 percent. It’s a problem that doesn’t discriminate between rich and poor, men and women, young and old.

❛Prescription drugs are now the preferred ‘high’ for many.