Pubdate: Fri, 14 Mar 2014
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2014 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: Jonathan Brown

MEDIA EXAGGERATING RISK OF LEGAL HIGHS, SAYS DRUGS EXPERT

Sacked Government Adviser Claims the Official Figures Present a 
Misleading Picture on the Number of Deaths

The number of deaths from so-called legal highs is being 
overestimated with many of the fatalities due to substances either 
wrongly classified or already outlawed in the UK, a former government 
drugs advisor has claimed.

Official figures, including those from the Office for National 
Statistics (ONS), are giving a potentially misleading impression of 
the scale of the problem fuelling a media and political overreaction, 
according to Professor David Nutt.

The Home Office recently announced a review into deaths resulting 
from legal highs such as the now-banned mephedrone which could result 
in potentially far-ranging changes to Britain's drugs laws following 
high profile reports of soaring numbers of user deaths.

Writing in the Lancet, Professor David Nutt and Dr Leslie King of the 
Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, also highlighted what they 
claimed were flaws in the way that figures were gathered by the 
National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (NPSAD) which compiles 
data from coroner's inquests.

Both organisations strongly disputed the claims.

The NSPAD reported last month that the prevalence of novel 
psychoactive substances  which include legal highs and new "designer" 
drugs - in post-mortem toxicology tests has increased 800 per cent in 
three years, from 12 in 2009 to 97 in 2012. It said that the number 
of deaths attributed to these substances rose by 600 per cent over 
the same period.

In the letter the academics said 17 out the 68 deaths blamed on legal 
highs were due to PMA and a further three linked to PMMA, substances 
now commonly sold as Ecstasy which have been outlawed in the UK since 1977.

It also criticised the inclusion in the figures of the herbal chewing 
stimulant khat, the slimming drug DNP and anabolic steroids, which 
they said were either not new or not psychoactive.

ONS figures for drug deaths in 2012 meanwhile said 13 of the 52 
deaths it reported in 2012 linked to new substances were due to GHB 
which was banned in 2003, it added.

Professor Nutt, who was sacked as the government's chief drug advisor 
under Labour after he criticised stricter laws on cannabis, said 
there was no simple answer to the number of deaths caused by these substances.

"We don't know why things are being misrepresented or at what level 
they are being misrepresented," he said. "Twice as many people die 
every day as a result of alcohol than die in a whole year as a result 
of legal highs. This is political expediency compiled with media 
hysteria," he added

A spokesman for the NPSAD said it accepted that definitions needed to 
be clarified among researchers. "Whilst, we fully agree and make 
clear in our recent report that other substances are of greater 
impact nationally, such as more established drugs including heroin 
and methadone, there remains a legitimate and considerable public 
concern about Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), which include so 
called 'legal highs' and other designer drugs. More people are dying 
after taking these substances than ever before which is a worrying 
trend," he said.

The ONS said it did not classify any substances as legal highs. "ONS 
has not "massaged" the figures for political purposes. It is an 
impartial organisation and subject to a strict code of practice," it 
said in a statement.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom