The Boston Globe Examines Seroquel’s Street Drug Status
Last month, I wrote of yet another case of Seroquel’s growing popularity as a street drug in connection with the shooting death of a man in Massachusetts and, given how many of these Seroquel as street drug stories were popping up back there, I wondered aloud why no one in the media was taking a look-see at the phenomenon. “Um, hello Boston Globe” is how I put it at the time.
I have no idea whether anyone at the paper reads this site, but today the Globe has an interesting article on the Seroquel as street drug phenomenon in Massachusetts. The take-aways are: it’s mostly being used as a sedative in pill form back there; many of those using it that way are recovering addicts or people who were first given the drug in an institutional setting as a sedative; the DEA isn’t even tracking the drug’s use on the street, which strikes me as naive on the agency’s part; the phenomenon is indicative of the wild off-label use of psych meds; and AstraZeneca issued, as you might expect, a stirring defense of its antipsychotic:
“‘Unfortunately, drug abuse extends not just to illicit substances, but also to medicines that are safe, effective, and necessary when used according to doctors’ prescriptions and advice,’ said Kirsten Evraire, a spokeswoman for the company.”
It’s “safe, effective, and necessary when used according to doctors’ prescriptions and advice?” Sure, that’s why AZ is being sued like crazy for lying about problems with the drug, which turned in revenues of $4.4 billion in 2008.
It’s interesting to me that the article didn’t get into the matter of people crushing and snorting Seroquel, but perhaps that’s more popular elsewhere in the US. The article does contain an error of fact when the reporter writes “Seroquel debuted 12 years ago as a novel drug for adult patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.” When Seroquel hit the world in 1997 it was only approved by the FDA for use in schizophrenia. Its acute mania indication did not come until much later.
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