Pharmacist warns over addiction to painkiller drugs
"They are not sweets and people should not treat them lightly," warned pharmacist Brendan Quinn yesterday. "Codeine-based products, in particular, can be very addictive."
Mr Quinn, who runs a pharmacy in Gort, Co Galway, wants manufacturers to put clearer safety warnings on their products.
He said that popular painkillers, such as Solpadeine and Nurofen Plus, contained codeine and should be treated with the utmost caution.
"Many people take Solpadeine for a hangover and that means they have residual alcohol in the system. That combination can be dangerous, and will almost certainly affect reaction times if you are driving."
Codeine phosphate, which can be found in both Solpadeine and Nurofen Plus, as well as cough mixtures, is actually an opiate, a narcotic drug in the same family as heroin and morphine, though not as potent. Mr Quinn warns it is all too easy to become hooked on such products.
"We had to remove codeine-based painkillers and cough bottles from the top shelves because some customers were clearly abusing it.
"It's a cheap fix, cheaper than alcohol and cannabis. Everywhere I worked, it was the same. Dublin has a particularly high level of codeine abuse."
The pharmacist took part in clinical trials on the effects of non-prescribed drugs and was shocked by the results. "My reaction time was definitely affected and I became drowsy. It was an eye-opener." It was, he added, questionable whether manufacturers were doing enough to alert the public of the dangers. A survey carried out by a leading British campaigner revealed that women are more susceptible to painkiller addiction than men.
The study, which covered Ireland as well as Britain, was carried out by Scotland-based lobbying group Over-count. It showed that women accounted for 67% of abusers, and those women in the 25-35 age group were the most affected.
Over-count is headed by David Grieve, a former nurse who became addicted to cough medicine when he developed bronchitis.
At the height of his addiction, he used to drink 63 bottles of mixture a week.
"I was addicted for 16 years. In 1993 I was given a liver function test and later told by the consultant that if I continued with my addiction to the cough linctus, I would definitely die within the next 12 months."
Mr Grieve finally managed to wean himself off the medicine over a 10-month period.
Free of his addiction for the past 10 years, he set up Over-count as a service to others.
He is now spearheading a campaign to have the phenomenon recognised as a serious health issue in both Britain and Ireland.
