A major Evening Standard investigation today exposes the opioid painkiller timebomb facing Britain, with experts warning of “a public health disaster hidden in plain sight”.
Figures released this morning show that 23.8 million prescriptions were dispensed for opioids such as tramadol in England last year, one for every two adults.
This is an 80 per cent rise on the 2007 figure.
The vast majority of prescriptions are for chronic pain, for which science shows the pills are dismally ineffective. But people look to them as a magic bullet and often ask for stronger doses from their GPs.
Our investigation details how:
- Opioids cost the taxpayer £263 million last year In 90 per cent of cases they don’t work for chronic pain
- About 200,000 people in the UK are said to be problem users
- Hospital admissions involving overdoses have almost doubled in a decade
- Admissions to private detox centres are up 30 per cent in two years
More than 16,800 people died from prescription opioid overdoses in America in 2016 and fears are growing here.
Today we publish stories of those affected in the UK, as well as the results of our research into the drug companies and the failure of the regulator to tackle the crisis.
You can read them in our enhanced Opioid Timebomb investigation digital package here. We advise you to read on your laptop or tablet, turned horizontally, rather than on mobile for the full interactive effects.
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