§ Mr. Norman Lamontasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what evidence her Department has of drug addiction caused by chloridine sold in a proprietary mixture whose name has been supplied to her, which is freely available in chemists' shops without a prescription.
§ Dr. OwenThere is evidence of some misuse of proprietary mixtures containing chloridine, including the one in question, but reports of persons known to be addicted are very few in number.
§ Mr. Norman Lamontasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many cases of chloridine addiction have been treated in National Health Service hospitals in the last five years.
§ Dr. OwenThe number of times chloridine was recorded as used by patients in whom a condition of drug dependence—alone or with other conditions—was stated to be present on admission to psychiatric hospitals and units in England and Wales in the last five years was
1969 31 1970 14 1971 19 1972 18 1973 14
§ Mr. Norman Lamontasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether she will take steps to ban sales without prescription of a proprietary mixture containing chloridine, details of which have been supplied to her.
§ Dr. OwenThis preperation contains certain ingredients which are below the present levels at which sale is required to be restricted to prescription only. The Medicines Commission has recently proposed a lowering of the level in the case of one of these ingredients. Whether the implementation of this recommendation would result in a restriction of the sale of the product in question to prescription390W only would depend on whether the promoters decided to change the formulation of the product.