Black market drugs 'health risk'

[0utrider]

People are risking their health by buying prescription tranquilisers on the black market, a Belfast GP has warned.
Dr George O'Neill said in his 30 years working in the north and west of the city, addictions to drugs such as Diazepam have always been a problem.
"You can buy them almost freely throughout Belfast," he said.
Pharmacist Terry Maguire said the drugs most commonly stolen in robberies of chemists were Benzodiazepines.
He added: "Warfarin sometimes masquerades as Diazepam 10mg - for someone who doesn't need Warfarin, it could be fatal as you could bleed to death.
"My plea is to anyone who feels they want these medicines, do not buy them from illegal sources, it's much too dangerous."
Drugs programme manager Benny Lynch of the Falls Community Council said the addiction problem is "massive," with "as many people on these tablets now as there were during the Troubles".
He said he knew of one group of women in their 40s who "were buying blue tablets on the street with no identification or markings on them - they assumed it was Diazepam 10mg but they could have been given anything".
"No-one knows for sure what's in the tablets unless they're clinically tested," he added.
The eastern board's senior prescribing advisor, Dr Brenda Bradley, said "significantly higher rates" of drugs were prescribed in certain areas, but that levels were decreasing in recent years.
"This can be a difficult group of patients. What we don't want are those patients disappearing and buying them on the black market.
"We want an environment where they can be referred on to more specialised practitioners."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/n...nd/7557599.stm

[fiveleggedrat]

Um, sorry government, but Swim feels 1000 times safer buying prescription meds illegally as opposed to illicit drugs.

Buying some is as easy as reading the pill stamp and googling it. So much safer. Swim NEVER fears his safety with meds. Now, give Swim a bag of coke, meth, heroin, or such and he will eye it across the room cautiously from behind a couch or some object.

Swim has had street drugs cut with dangerous shit, but never bought a pill that was unsafe. People lie about what is in the pill sometimes, yes, but a PDR or the internet is ALL you need.



Until the government starts telling us drug dealers are "dipping pills in PCP and LSD for increased potency" before selling them...

[Alfa]

Maybe the black market should become regulated and become a white market?

[Woodman]

This is EXACTLY the kind of thing that governments are supposed to protect it's citizens from.

Instead, we find people in desperate need of medicine who are made to look like CRIMINALS!!!!

What The FUCK???

I think an independent study should be conducted to establish who exactly supports this kind of shit.

[cra$h]

all of the pills you can get from doctors pose no risk for those who buy them illegally. like mentioned before, just do a quick google search. there's a fucking site called id this pill. doesn't get much more obvious. the only ones you have to watch out for is things like extacy, since there's no legal source, and you get crooked dealers.