{"id":90888,"date":"2018-04-10T23:30:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T23:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=53d273c316f05df431f423e39010f05b"},"modified":"2018-04-10T23:30:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T23:30:18","slug":"news-story-dangerous-diversion-of-diazepam-down-by-potentially-more-than-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=90888","title":{"rendered":"News story: Dangerous diversion of Diazepam down by potentially more than 60%"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Our efforts to crack down on the diversion of Prescription-Only Medicines (POM) onto the black market are working, as recent figures highlight a drop in large scale orders of prescription medicine.<\/p>\n<p>The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) analysed bulk orders of diverted medicines* between January &#8211; May 2017 compared to January \u2013 May 2016. The figures show:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>trading of Diazapam is down by 64%\n<ul>\n<li>trading of Nitrazepam is down by 24%<\/li>\n<li>trading of top strength Temazepam is down by 20%<\/li>\n<li>trading of Zolpidem is down by 14%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/mhra-cracking-down-on-organised-crime-worth-200m\">We recently updated the public about the diversion of medicines onto the criminal market, said to be worth up to \u00a3200m.<\/a> Our enforcement team is running 17 active investigations, and we are disrupting organised criminal networks diverting medicines from the legitimate supply chain onto the illegal market.<\/p>\n<p>44 arrests have been made thus far, for offences such as possession with intent to supply a controlled drug, and offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Mohammed Urfan pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful supply of class C controlled drugs contrary to section 4(3) a Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and a suspended sentence of 18 months imprisonment was imposed on him, with a requirement that he carry out 260 hours of unpaid work.<\/p>\n<p>Alastair Jeffrey, MHRA Head of Enforcement, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It is a serious criminal offence to sell medicines outside of the regulated supply chain and the latest figures show our unabated efforts to identify and prosecute criminals are having an effect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The criminals involved are exploiting people to make money and have no concern about the health and wellbeing of people who buy the medicines.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">We will work tirelessly to investigate and prosecute those breaking the law.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Prescription only medicines are potent and should only be taken under medical supervision.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_2345\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"fn\">News centre<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"street-address\">MHRA<br \/>\n<br \/>\n151 Buckingham Palace Road<br \/>\n<br \/>\nVictoria<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"locality\">London<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"postal-code\">SW1W 9SZ<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:newscentre@mhra.gov.uk\">newscentre@mhra.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">During office hours:<\/span><br \/>\n              020 3080 7651 (08:30 &#8211; 17:00)\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Out of office hours:<\/span><br \/>\n              07770 446 189 (17:00 &#8211; 08:30)\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"comments\">Office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm. For real-time updates including the latest press releases and news statements, see our Twitter channel at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/mhrapress\">https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/mhrapress<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Analysis indicates trading in top strength 10mg Diazepam is down by 64% as MHRA and partners work hard to stop illegal diversion of medicines to the black market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}