Adam Winstock

Prescription drug misuse kills more people in the USA than heroin. Driven by aggressive marketing by big pharma in the States and some lax prescribing supported by poor regulation, these ‘quality’ products are one of the biggest emerging drug threats in the UK.

Using data for the Global Drug Survey and clinical experience across various health care sectors, the first part of this talk focused on tramadol, gabapentin/pregabalin and the prescription opioids.

One prescription drug that regularly appears outside clinical environments is Viagra and this sexual enhancer leads us into the second part of the talk the sexual function and risks of drugs.

While sometimes drug filled experiences can be fun, often people wake up in a blur, uncertain of what has happened. These ‘mystery nights’ can be very distressing and lead to regret and unplanned ramifications, as can ‘mystery white powders’ which seem to have an attraction for so many in the UK. In the last part of the talk Adam covered harm reduction for ‘new drug virgins’ and skate over some of the novel psychoactive substances that GDS has recently written on – DMT, NMBOMe and the synthetic cannabis products.

So from pills and powders to prescriptions and pleasure we hope Adam covered something that tickles everyone’s fancy.