Pubdate: Mon, 12 Mar 2007
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2007 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Christian Catalano

ABUSE OF LEGAL DRUGS WORSE THAN HEROIN AND ICE

OVERDOSING on prescription or over-the-counter drugs is twice as 
common as overdosing on illicit drugs, new Melbourne ambulance figures show.

With heroin abuse declining dramatically after a glut at the turn of 
the century, the city's paramedics have attended a far greater 
proportion of legal-drug overdoses -- 6150 in the 12 months to 
February last year.

Over the same period, data from the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug 
Centre show there were 3011 ambulance calls for illicit drug 
overdoses, comprising 1369 for heroin and 1642 for all others, 
including ice and ecstasy.

"The recent media hysteria around methamphetamines and ice is 
unfortunate in one way because it detracts from the true scope of the 
problem," Turning Point research fellow Stefan Cvetkovski said. 
"Illicit drugs obviously attract more attention, but we need to get 
some perspective on other kinds of overdose and substance dependence."

Sedatives such as Valium, Mogadon and Rohypnol were the most abused 
category of legal drugs, followed by analgesics such as Nurofen and 
Panadeine Forte.

The research also found women accounted for nearly two-thirds of all 
overdoses with legal drugs and that the average age of these patients 
was 36. Conversely, two-thirds of those overdosing on illicit drugs 
were male, with an average age of under 29.

"We're talking about a different group of patients," Metropolitan 
Ambulance Service paramedic Lindsay Bent said.

"Your prescription-related overdoses and your alcohol-related 
problems, they don't get a lot of media, but they are significant 
issues for paramedics."

While heroin and narcotic overdoses occurred mostly in suburbs such 
as Fitzroy, Collingwood, Footscray, Springvale and Dandenong, 
prescription overdoses could "happen anywhere across Melbourne".

Mr Bent, who manages the Metropolitan Ambulance Service's inner-city 
paramedics, said a large proportion of overdoses with legal drugs 
were suicide attempts.

Others involved the misreading of labels or children swallowing medications.

"It's easier to get hold of these drugs and so it's easy for a person 
to take a whole lot on one dose."

The Federal Government's principal drug advisory group admitted the 
response to prescription drug dependency had been "a bit light on".

"People don't see this type of addiction in the same light," the 
executive officer of the Australian National Council on Drugs, Gino 
Vumbaca, said.

"If someone stops using illicit drugs and moves on to benzodiazepines 
(such as Valium) or some other pharmaceutical drug, we don't see that 
as being as bad."

While the number of prescription-drug overdoses has remained 
relatively stable in recent years, the figures show heroin-related 
emergencies are less than a quarter of the 5652 cases reported in 2000.

Intoxication from alcohol remained the largest single problem for 
Melbourne paramedics, with 4359 attendances over the reported period.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman