Sleeping pills wake-up call

By Melissa Meehan
SLEEPING pills are being blamed for side effects as severe as heroin and other street drugs.
Drug rehabilitation groups have warned that the side effects of withdrawal from sleeping pills can be more problematic than more well-known hard drugs.
The warning follows news of two raids on a Noble Park pharmacy in which thieves stole a large amount of sleeping pills recently.
Program manager for the Addiction Medicine Unit at Dandenong Hospital Ros Burnett said that benzodiazepines, more commonly known as sleeping pills, were safe to use for a limited tme.
She said the group of tablets, which include Valium, Cerapax and Xanax, could easily be abused.
“These types of drugs have a sedative effect, which make them very popular,” Ms Burnett said.
“But people can become dependent on it very quickly.”
She these drugs could be legally accessed only by prescription and should be used for up to four weeks only.
“But that is when the black market comes into play,” she said.
“And people also tend to doctor shop.”
Ms Burnett said that withdrawal symptoms were the main concern of benzodiazepine dependency. She said side effects were difficult to describe because people react differently.
“But the withdrawal symptoms can include seizures, confusion and delirium,” she said.
“It really needs to be managed by a doctor.”
Ms Burnett said the black market was the main concern for doctors and drug rehabilitation bodies.
“People see it as a less dangerous substance, but when they start to inject it there are a lot of side effects including abscesses and sore veins,” Ms Burnett said.
“A lot of the time the withdrawal is more problematic than drugs like heroin.”