UK: Powerful painkillers must carry prominent ‘cigarette-style’ warnings about addiction risks
5762 Mins Read
Powerful painkillers taken by millions of Britons must carry prominent “cigarette-style” warnings on their labels about addiction risks, Matt Hancock was expected to announce today.
The health secretary announced the new tough new regulations after an investigation by The Sunday Times exposed Britain’s opioid crisis.
Earlier this week, The Times reported that in an unprecedented intervention, Professor Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, spoke out for the first time after the government responded to The Sunday Times campaign exposing the scale of Britain’s painkiller crisis.
“It is vital that anyone who is prescribed strong painkillers takes them only as long as they are suffering from serious pain,” Davies said. “We know that long-term use of painkillers can lead to life-altering and sometimes fatal addictions.”
TheTimes reported how it revealed a huge rise in prescriptions of the drugs, which have jumped to 40m a year, and stark differences in prescription rates between the north and the south of the country.
At the same time addiction has spiralled, overdoses have almost doubled and deaths have rocketed to five a day.
Patients said they were unaware that they could become addicted to opioids, which are also available over the counter.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “Painkillers were a major breakthrough in modern medicine and are hugely important to help people manage pain alongside their busy lives — but they must be treated with caution. Some opioids are highly addictive and can ruin lives like an illegal drug.”
