Two Nottingham people a week are coming forward for help with addictions to drugs they first got from their GPs or pharmacists, a support worker says.
It follows alarming Government figures showing the rising numbers of deaths being linked to prescription drugs.
In the third and final part of a Notts TV investigation, Jamie Barlow talks to a substance misuse practitioner at the Nottingham Recovery Network campaigning to make more people aware of what he says is only ‘the tip of the iceberg’.
A drug support worker says two new prescription painkiller addicts are coming forward every week in Nottingham looking for support.
Kieron Grant is a substance misuse practitioner at the Nottingham Recovery Network, a walk-in support service based on Upper Parliament Street, and says most of his patients addicted to opioid painkillers are middle-aged women.
He spoke out after Government figures showed prescription painkillers are now killing more people in the UK than cocaine, ecstasy and heroin.
An average of more than one death a day was linked to either tramadol or codeine in 2015.
Mr Grant says young people also abuse drugs first dispensed by GPs or pharmacists at house parties by “dishing them out” to friends, and adds the recorded numbers of people becoming addicted to prescription medication is the “tip of the iceberg”.
His concerns also come after a leading Nottingham doctor said GPs urgently need more training to halt the rise in the number of people becoming addicted to prescription medication.
Mr Grant says typical cases he sees involve adults who have gone to their GP to get treatment for back or leg pain, who have become dependent on opioid painkillers they’re prescribed.
“And then there’s people who just abuse them,” he says, “They buy them freely for recreational use or use them as coping mechanisms and use them instead of illicit old-school drugs.”
Notts TV revealed last week how Sarah Mann, a former Nottingham City Hospital midwife, was fired and arrested after becoming dependent on tramadol, a painkiller meant to help her after she injured her back while delivering a baby.
Dr David Rhinds, an addiction psychiatrist at the NHS Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust, says the most common form of addiction is patients addicted to “combination” medications available over-the-counter – such as Nurofen Plus, containing codeine and paracetamol.
He added some patients seek help because they take five or six times the NHS daily recommended amount of dihydrocodeine each day – a strong opioid – while others are hooked on drugs used to treat insomnia, laxatives or herbal cough medicines.
In 2009, safeguards were introduced at pharmacies restricting customers to reduced pack sizes of medication at any one time.
But Kieron Grant says this led to addicts “doing circuits” of local pharmacies to amass larger quantities of drugs.
Harvinder Singh, pharmacy manager at the Glasshouse Chemist, Glasshouse Street, says people regularly return to buy medication and the pharmacy gives out hundreds of “controlled drugs” – strong, addictive painkillers – each week.
Patients do genuinely buy the drugs with the permission from a doctor, but the pharmacy has safeguards in place to check.
Mr Singh says the pharmacy has a good relationship with other local chemists and will make them aware of anyone they suspect of buying medication too frequently.
The pharmacy also has a notice board to monitor customers suspected of abusing drugs and when pharmacists, like doctors, dispense codeine they have to inform customers of the recommended dosage and warn them of the addictive side effects.
But Mr Singh says nothing can prevent customers travelling to pharmacies further afield to get their fix.
Part of the problem, he adds, is that over-the-counter medication can be bought from petrol stations and supermarkets, without the supervision of pharmacists.
“It’s a very difficult situation because you can’t really monitor it,” he says.
“It’s like someone buying a knife from somewhere, or cigarettes or alcohol.
“If you have people addicted to different things, you can’t stop them buying this from several different sources.”
The Nottingham Recovery Network is available for people over the age of 18 and patients are assessed and given a support package, and reduction plan, to cut down on the drugs they are taking.
The process can be as quick or long as patients want, depending on their motivation and how much they’re willing to go through to get off the drugs.
After losing her job, Sarah Mann says she became depressed and, at her lowest ebb, “gave up” on herself.
The former Nottingham City Hospital midwife admits she used to self-harm and have suicidal thoughts before the Nottingham Recovery Network helped her out of depression and off prescription medication.
Sarah was given buprenorphine, otherwise known as subutex, to ween her off tramadol: a procedure used to help people come off heroin.
But Kieron Grant says, because of the stigma attached to prescription drug addiction, and because most of his clients are women with children, many are reluctant to seek help because of the fear social services may be called, and they might risk losing their kids.
Kieron says people feel guilty and shameful of their addictions – and think they should not use drug support services because “they’re not typical drug users”.
“They think they’re wasting people’s time. There’s lots of layers we have to break down before it comes to treatment,” he says.
Sarah admits the hardest thing is to ask for help and says she, herself, would have sought help sooner had it not been for the shame she felt.
She says staff at recovery services around the city, like the Recovery Network and Double Impact, are “readily available to help” and make the recovery process “so much easier”.
“It takes a lot to make change in your life,” she says.
“I don’t want commending for that [coming off the drug] I just want people to know that people do want to help.
“You don’t have to hide away in shame because these things happen to us and you can do something about it.”
Kieron delivers presentations to raise awareness of the Nottingham Recovery Network’s services around the city – in universities, doctors’ surgeries and hostels – but, despite an increase in the number of people accessing help, he believes most people are still in the dark.
“We don’t know how many are out there. But by presenting the services, the numbers are increasing week-on-week,” he says.
“The help and support is out there. That’s the message that needs to get across. We’re a service and we treat everyone with respect and treat everyone as they come.”
Having recovered and got her life back on track, Sarah now works part-time as a receptionist.
She describes her journey to recovery as a “grieving process”, adding she’s feels like she’s lost her “identity” of being a midwife.
“I was a mum first and a midwife second, it was who I was. It will never, ever stop hurting,” she says.
“The reason I speak to people now is because I could never, ever believe that something like this could happen to me.
“We’re all a minor injury away from anything. Getting addicted, it could happen to any of us.”
For help and advice on addiction for you or someone you know, contact Nottingham Recovery Network by calling 0800 066 5362, or visit the network’s website.
