Drugs expert shares expertise on award-winning BBC Radio 4 programme

Glasgow Caledonian University’s drugs expert Dr Andrew McAuley shared his expertise on Scotland’s drug epidemic on a special BBC Radio 4 report investigating the deadly trade in benzodiazepines, or street Valium.

Last night (November 2), he appeared on the award-winning current affairs File on 4 documentary series which investigates major issues at home and abroad.

Dr McAuley, a Reader and Public Health Scotland Consultant Healthcare Scientist, was introduced as an expert in drugs policy in Scotland during the programme entitled High Anxiety: The Deadly Trade in Street Valium, presented by reporter Jane Deith.

He said he was pleased to have been invited to contribute to the detailed investigation into street benzodiazepines use in the UK.

Explaining the background to the rising problem on the programme, Dr McAuley said: “The Scottish drug-related death rates are an epidemic of global significance comparable to those in North America, which is something we could never have foreseen 10 or 20-years-ago. One of the key drivers over the last five years has been the role of benzodiazepines.

“There was a decision taken in the early 2000s to curtail benzodiazepine prescribing as a way of trying to reduce the risk of these drugs. One of the unintended consequences has been that it contributed to a rise in this illicitly manufactured street market.”

The programme highlighted how benzodiazepines, or street Valium, are cheap but also deadly. Illegal pills costing as little as 50p each are contributing to the deaths of hundreds of people each year in Scotland.

There were also interviews with those whose lives have been destroyed by benzodiazepines, a category of drugs usually used to treat anxiety that can be prescribed, but which have become a major feature of the illegal drugs market in Scotland and now elsewhere in the UK.

Last year in Scotland more than 800 people died where illegal street benzos were involved. In England and Wales, the death toll was over 500, with 171 of those who died having used benzodiazepine analogues, fake versions that can vary widely – and dangerously - in strength.

Dr McAuley is also a Reader and member of the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses and Substance Use research groups at the University's School of Health and Life Sciences' Research Centre for Health (ReaCH).

ReaCH makes a direct and significant contribution to Sustainable Development Goal 3 – good health and wellbeing – issued by the United Nations in 2015 as a blueprint for peace and prosperity across the planet.

You can download and listen to the programme here - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001dnbr