Drink or drugs?
Sir: Auberon Waugh (Another voice, 12 March) noted that wine sales appeared to be tripling every time he looked at them and remarked that the greatest threat to the nation's health was really its 'reckless consumption' of the benzodiazepine group of drugs. He has, seemingly, unwittingly (and, I should guess, unwillingly), made quite a good point.
For there are, of course, great similar- ities in the properties of alcohol and the benzodiazepines (including Mogadon, a.k.a. Nitrazeparn, which he quaintly de- scribes as non-toxic): both are hypnotic, anxiolytic and potentially addictive sub- stances, which are dangerous taken in excess. But, far from there being a 'silent conspiracy' on the subject, information about the dangers of benzodiazepines has been widely disseminated recently and the amount of these drugs prescribed has consequently dropped considerably. Con- versely, while the dangers of alcohol have been known for some time, alcohol con- sumption continues to rise, as Mr Waugh points out. So where he, quite reasonably, calls into question the activities of the drugs industry, I, equally reasonably, in- vite him to consider those of the alcohol industry.
I do not doubt for one minute Mr Waugh's 'enormous file' of letters from people who have experienced great prob- lems while taking benzodiazepines but I should remind him of the enormous num- bers of enormous files in hospitals of all sorts up and down the country about people who have experienced great prob- lems while taking alcohol. The sort of problems caused by both substances is, unsurprisingly, similar in many respects; the main difference is that physical prob- lems caused by alcohol may be permanent, whereas those caused by benzodiazepines are apparently not.
Simon Sinclair
26 Bridge Street, Osney, Oxford
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