Tranquilliser CrashJudge a man by his questions rather than his answers.
Voltaire
J. K. Galbraith, the author of Crash of 1929 once said that there are two kinds of economists: those who don’t know what will happen and those who don’t know they don’t know. This observation could be applied equally to pronouncements on benzodiazepine tranquillisers. It could be said that there have been two kinds of commentators in medicine: the drugs’ regulators the MHRA who didn’t know what would happen when they agreed to the introduction of benzodiazepines, and people in the British Medical Association and your local GP who have
on the whole little idea that their grasp of the 50 year scandal is seriously flawed, incomplete and self-serving. The victims of this hubris and ignorance have been (and still are) the patients who took the drugs. So much damage has been done over so long a time that a flight from reality has been the order of the day and hence there are large but unquantified numbers of innocent people who have been misdiagnosed, rejected and ignored when they should by rights have received acknowledgement and all the assistance that could be made available.
These commentators have been supported in their assertions and ignorance by UK politicians. In 1994 when they were opposition MPs, David Blunkett, Paul Boeteng and Dawn Primarolo knew that a scandal existed in medicine regarding tranquillisers and David Blunkett committed himself on paper to this view. All three subsequently became government ministers but none of them carried out their promises to examine the scandal and end it. As I write, Dawn Primarolo is a Minister for Health with the power to do something if she wished but instead the victims find her acting in the same way as all previous ministers have done and staying well away from the situation. Since 1994 there have been others who have denied the effects of licensed drugs or simply ignored them. Melanie Johnson, former health Minister, who said on 10 November 2004 in reply to Paul Flynn MP:
“I thought that the account of my hon. Friend rather neglected the benefits of medicines and drugs, although he made a passing reference to them, as well as the occasional risks and difficulties – some serious and some not so serious, that are experience by people who take such medicine.”
Melanie Johnson now does work for the ABPI, the UK drug manufacturers’ trade body.
Former health ministers may not have helped tranquilliser victims but they have helped themselves:
Lord Warner, former Health minister is non-executive chairman of UK HealthGateway which seeks access to the NHS for companies, adviser to Xansa, a technology firm, and Byotrol, which sell services or products to the NHS. He is also paid by DLA Piper, which advised ministers on the £12 billion IT project for the NHS, a project Lord Warner was in charge of as a minister.
Patricia Hewitt, former Health Secretary is a consultant to Alliance Boots, the retail and pharmacy company.
Stephen Ladyman, former Health Minister works for ITIS Holdings which sells traffic data to government.
Alan Milburn, former Health Secretary now does work for PepsiCo.
In consequence of this, I have no belief at all that anything will ever be done for the victims of prescribed benzodiazepine tranquillisers, the scandal is far too large, involving hundreds of thousands of people over 50 years. The unluckiest of these people whether because of their individual genes, their circumstances, the number or type of drugs they were given or how long they took them for, lost pretty much everything. Losing everything meant their health was destroyed while they took them and after they stopped. Losing everything meant that many lost their jobs and therefore security in life. Losing everything meant their relationships with others were affected and lost. Losing everything meant that thousands of people died from the experience.
No-one who addicted trusting patients in their ignorance and hubris ever apologised and indeed throughout the years they have sought to apply all responsibility to the individuals themselves, employing a staggering display of twisted logic to do it – patients exploited doctors, were drug seekers, bought drugs on the internet, ignored medical advice – these have all been part of the extensive range of other irrelevancies and generalised untruths. They studiously avoided the truth that benzodiazepines were prescribed for every condition under the sun and subsequently turned tens of thousands of healthy people into people who became desperately sick. Politicians run a mile from addressing these truths and should be judged by the questions they have never asked.