Cut price drugs addiction alert.

Byline: EMMA PINCH

ADDICTION to over-the-counter drugs in the Midlands could explode after price cuts announced last week, experts have warned.

More than 2,000 people in the region are currently on a database of men and women addicted to common non-prescription medication.

According to the country's leading drugs awareness group, one addict is swallowing 70 painkillers a day while another drinks an astonishing NINE LITRES of cough medicine a week.

And the problem in the Midlands - which is the second most affected region in England - will escalate with knock-on effects from the abolition of drug price-fixing.

The cost of medicines bought over the counter was halved after a court last week abolished price-fixing of big-name brands.

Major supermarkets immediately slashed the price of drugs such as Nurofen, Anadin and Lemsip.

The move came after a High Court judge abolished the 30-year-old Resale Price Maintenance law which let drug makers set minimum charges.

David Grieve, who runs Over-Count, the only helpline for the problem in Britain, told the Sunday Mercury that many pharmacies were now expecting to be priced out of the market - making misuse less detectable.

Last year comic Mel Smith revealed he had been secretly addicted to painkiller Nurofen Plus, swallowing up to 40 a day and nearly dying from two stomach ulcers.

But despite his admission, the problem is largely a hidden one because most addicts are respectable housewives and businessmen.

Mr Grieve, who was addicted to cough medicine for 17 years, said there are 2,464 people from the Midlands on his database - with the region coming only behind London in numbers.

At the moment he has 10,000 clients, most addicted to Solpadeine, then Nurofen Plus, Co-codomol, Feminax and Nytol.

Two thirds are female, and 90 per cent of those are addicted to codeine-based painkillers.

'Ten per cent of codeine is converted to pure morphine in the brain,' he said. 'If you take the maximum dose over 24 hours, it is like shooting up heroin once a day.

'While it gets rid of your headache or back pain, it makes you calm and happy and people like that feeling.

'Most start taking it for legitimate, therapeutic reasons and through no fault of their own become hooked and end up on 30 tablets a day.

'They think it won't do them any harm because they bought it over the counter. This is a problem that is hidden but it is not going to go away. Government policy is to encourage self-medication and make drugs cheaper, which will make abuse less easy to detect.'

Roger Odd, of the Royal Society of Pharmacists, said it was important to discourage misuse of over-the-counter drugs while not scaring off those who benefited from the medicines.

'Pharmacists use practice guidelines and will ask a customer if they have taken the medicine before, and if they are taking any other medication to prevent problems with the product occurring,' he said.

Russell Johnson, who runs Birmingham Turning Point - a centre that offers advice and treatment for drug abusers and their families - said: 'We have calls from people taking codeine, antihistamine and sometimes caffeine-based preparations.

'If you believe that it is something that helps you and makes you feel more calm or alert, it can be an incentive to take them and rely on them.'

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