CALL TO STRIKE OFF DOCTORS PUTTING DRUG ADDICTS ON TRANQUILLISERS

FAMILY doctors who have unnecessarily prescribed tranquillisers to
recovering drug addicts should be disqualified from practice, an ex
member of a European anti-drugs agency warned yesterday.

Almost two thirds of clients at Eastern Health Board drug treatment
clinics last year tested positive for benzodiazepines, a tranquilliser
normally prescribed for insomnia and nervous disorders.

The sedative is sometimes administered under strict supervision by
drug addiction centres.

Concerns have regularly been raised in the medical profession that
general practitioners have been giving prescriptions for the substance
to drug addicts, purely for their own financial gain.

Misuse of benzodiazepines can have a serious negative effect on
patients in methadone programmes to overcome addiction to illegal
drugs such as heroin.

Health Minister Micheal Martin is establishing a committee of
interested parties which will begin examining the issue in the next
few weeks.

Cllr Con O'Leary, a former member of the Southern Health Board and
European Cities Against Drugs, said doctors found to be issuing
prescriptions unnecessarily should be struck off the medical register.

They are abusing their own powers and the addicts, and there should
be no conspiracy to cover up for them. These prescriptions should be
traceable and the garda drug squad should be brought in to track them
and prosecute the doctors for irresponsible prescribing, said Cllr
O'Leary, an independent member of Cork Corporation.

If a publican can be fined and held responsible for giving drink to
someone who is already drunk, then the same should apply to
doctors, he said.

I am glad the minister is working to find a way of ruling out these
practices, but it is important that the committee should not just
include members of the medical profession, Cllr O'Leary said.