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[ITN NEWS THEME]
>> ANNOUNCER : From the studios of ITN, the news
with Dermot Murnaghan and Julia Somerville
>> JULIA SOMERVILLE : Good afternoon, welcome to Tuesday's Lunchtime News
>> Dermot Murnaghan : Hello, the headlines today
clampdown on Britain's most widely used sleeping pill
why Temazepam is to be controlled
the Prime Minister moves to boost the pace of
schools opting out of local authority control
and a quarter of a century on, Norman Wisdom is back on set with a new film.
[ITN NEWS THEME]
>> JULIA SOMERVILLE : The government this morning announced
tough new controls to stamp out drug abuse involving the sleeping tablets Temazepam.
The Home Secretary, Micheal Howard, announced that
possession of the tablets without authority or a prescription will now be a criminal offence.
The drug, the most widely prescribed sleeping tablet in Britain,
has been linked to the deaths of dozens of addicts.
Separate new controls have also been announced in Scotland
where a battle for control of the drugs trade and in particular Temazepam
has lead to murders and shootings. Paul Davies reports.
>>PAUL DAVIES : Each year British doctors write out 7 million prescriptions
for the sleeping drug Temazepam. The new controls will not affect those who
genuinely use the drug to help them sleep.
But the government and the police are trying to stop
the growing abuse of Temazepam by addicts and those who make fortunes supplying them.
On the streets of Britain's inner cities dealers now sell Temazepam along with ***
and ***. The soft centers of the 'jellies', as they're
known, are melted down and injected.
It's a cheap fix, but one that can have fatal results.
Inside the vein, the gel solidifies and can cause blood clotting.
Dozens of addicts have died, many more have needed limb amputations.
In Scotland, where Temazepam abuse is causing particular concern,
today's measures were welcomed by the police.
>> EDDIE MCCOLM : At the moment, being a schedule 4 drug,
we can not prosecute anyone for simple possession of temazepam.
Once it is re-scheduled to schedule 3, er, everything changes. Er, we can charge people
for being in possession of Temazepam for their own use if they don't have a prescription.
>>PAUL DAVIES : Some GPs would like even tougher action.
>>DR.COLIN BROWN : Well we decided that there's no longer
any valid medical reason for the capsules to be available
on the health services at all. And we wrote to the Department of Health
advising that they should try and withdraw the product license, so that the capsule formulation
would.. .. could not be legally sold or prescribed
in this country at all.
>>PAUL DAVIES : The government is currently consulting health authorities
on a possible next step of banning the prescribing of temazepam
in it's present form.
>> JULIA SOMERVILLE : Well in Glasgow now is David Bryce,
a former drug addict who now runs a project to help others.
David Bryce, do you think this action that's been
announced today goes far enough?
>>DAVID BRYCE : I don't if it goes far enough, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
Temazepam's probably been involved in the deaths
of 75 people last year out of the 96 who died in the region. It's a killer.
It was legal, there were no consequences. People have got to see that if you carry this
drug you go to prison. It's that simple.
>> JULIA SOMERVILLE : Well we saw a doctor in that report just now
saying that, in his opinion, Temazpam capsules should be withdrawn from the NHS. They just
shouldn't be available. Would you support that?
>>DAVID BRYCE : I would support it because I think there is
a lot of alternative drugs that they can use for really about the same price.
Temazepam has been causing a lot of misery in the city of Glasgow,
and UK-wide for a number of years now. It's about time they done something about
it. It's the biggest killer just now probably.
>> JULIA SOMERVILLE : Is there a problem though that in banning it
or making it more difficult to have it legally that it will be driven underground with
all the problems that are associated with drugs that are underground drugs.
>>DAVID BRYCE : It's underground just now. People are not using it up front.
They say this about everything you've got to make steps, you've got to start
things and I think this is starting in the
right direction to go. It's a killer, and it should be treated that
way.
>> JULIA SOMERVILLE : David Bryce, thank you very much indeed.