EVER HEARD OF the drug ‘Zopiclone’?
Commonly prescribed for people with problems sleeping, it was the main drug recorded in 22 poisoning deaths in 2012.
‘Olanzapine’, meanwhile, is a drug used to treat people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Again, it was the main drug behind 22 deaths that year — an increase of 12 deaths on 2011.
The Health Research Board released its latest annual figures for drug deaths this week.
Of the 350 people who died as a result of the toxic effect of one or more drugs in 2012 alone — once again alcohol was, by far, the predominant drug recorded.
Further down the list, the two prescription drugs mentioned above were the main substances recorded in over 70 deaths between 2011 and 2012.
Over 2004 and 2005, the corresponding figure was less than 20.
So what’s behind the increase?
As the researchers behind the HRB study noted, there’s been a huge surge in the amount of “polydrug deaths” — deaths where more than one substance is present in the body — since 2004 (when records began).
Drugs like Zopiclone and Olanzapine are commonly taken in combination with other substances by drug users, with the aim of achieving a specific effect.
More widely-know drugs — like Diazepam — are bought and sold for the same reason.
“They’re both prescribed drugs,” Dr Bobby Smyth of the Drug Treatment Centre Board says.
“Zopiclone was originally marketed as a sleeping tablet in the 1990s as an alternative to benzos.
It was marketed as though it was not addictive…. However, it certainly is addictive.
“It has a sedating effect.”
Smyth says there’s anecdotal evidence of people traveling to countries where the drug can be bought over the counter, and flying back to Ireland with large quantities of it.
It’s something customs agents are aware of. The substance is one they “typically search for,” a spokesperson for Revenue’s Customs Service said.
Large quantities, if found, can be dealt with under criminal justice legislation. However, there haven’t been any large-scale seizures recently.
Dr Smyth says there are also counterfeit versions of it in circulation. As to what’s behind its increased popularity…
There tends to be a snowball effect as drugs get more widely abused. More people sell it, more people take it, and it goes on from there.
Again, drug users tend to take Olanzapine for its “mild sedating effect”.
And, like Zopiclone, people with legitimate prescriptions for it sometimes sell-on their monthly supply.
It has a high market value. There’s talk of people going to their pharmacy, getting their supply for a month, which would be 60 tablets, and going on to sell them to some lad in the street.
Tony Duffin — Director of the Ana Liffey Drug Project — said his service typically comes across people abusing “both illicit substances and prescribed substances”.
Recently, Duffin’s service has come across cases where people have been crushing up prescription drugs for injecting.
You could just imagine the sort of damage that that would do to your veins, and obviously it would add to the risk of an overdose.
A total of 5,289 people have lost their lives from drug-related deaths since records began — in 2004.
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