Prescription pills under review after surge in drug deaths

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Addictive pills linked to a surge in drug deaths across Scotland are being investigated by ministers as prescriptions for some medicines increase tenfold.

Medicines including opioids and benzodiazepines, some linked to more than 100 Scottish deaths last year, have been dispensed more frequently by doctors in the past decade, analysis by The Times has found.

Prescription rates for some drugs, such as morphine, gabapentin and oxycodone, have soared by 100 per cent.

Dr McPhee suggests that these assertions lack evidence, that over prescribing is the cause of drug problems.