Drug abuse

An examination of how the prescription painkiller addiction epidemic exploded

Drug dealer, MD, by Anna Lembke…

Scrap the opioid substitution service

I am a locum pharmacist who has worked in pharmacies in various regions of England. In many of the pharmacies I work in, I dispense methadone or buprenorphine to substance misusers and also provide clean needle packs as requested. It is disturbing for me to see drug misusers collect their methadone …

Why Australia got it right with reclassifying codeine to prescription-only

Australia’s medicines regulator made a smart decision when it recently decided that codeine products will no longer be sold over the counter (OTC) ( The Pharmaceutical Journal online, 23 December 2016). Addiction and death have been linked to these products in many countries.…

Why Australia decided to make all codeine products prescription only

The recent decision in Australia to make codeine-containing medications prescription only from 2018 ( The Pharmaceutical Journal online, 23 December 2016) was reported to have been met with disappointment from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. As part of a pattern of increas…

A potted history of cannabis in the United States

Marijuana: a short history by John Hudak.…

Methods patients use to purchase over-the-counter medicines for misuse

Duncan Hill, specialist pharmacist in substance misuse, explains the tricks misusers of over-the-counter medicines use to obtain their drug of choice from pharmacies.…

A new perspective on addiction

Unbroken brain: a revolutionary new way of understanding addiction, by Maia Szalavitz.…

Legalise cannabis for medical use, MPs say

An influential committee of MPs has called on the government to make cannabis legal for medical use.  The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Drug Policy Reform wants the drug reclassified from its Schedule 1 — which puts it in the same class as ecstasy and LSD — to Sched…

Anaesthesiologists call on UN to resist making ketamine a controlled substance

The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) has called for support to protect the status of the anaesthetic ketamine as an essential medicine.  The plea comes in response to repeated attempts by China and other south-east Asian countries that have problems with ketamine…

Community pharmacy helps diagnose people with hepatitis C infection, study shows

Community pharmacists have the potential to identify people with undiagnosed hepatitis C infection, according to research published in Clinical Pharmacist.…