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In 1982, I was prescribed Ativan, one of the benzodiazepine family of tranquillisers. I spent the next five years in a state of misery, chasing a new, pervasive and mysterious illness that doctors could not diagnose.... Eventually, I identified what was the matter with me: I had been addicted.'
Beatrice Faust
Over half a million people are addicted to benzodiazepine tranquillisers and sleeping pills in Australia alone. How is it that dangerously addictive mind-altering drugs are sold so readily to a trusting public?
Beatrice Faust exposes the great international scandal of drugs that are sold without sufficient testing, drugs known to be addictive or harmful from the time they are released. Many, like thalidominde, are notorious; others, less well known, are equally destructive.
Combining well-documented research and reports from other benzo junkies, Beatrice Faust's timely and important book is a biting analysis of malpractice in the medical-industrial complex. Doctors, drug companies and governments all profit from pushing benzos. Faust goes behond critique and personal experience, pointing constructively towards a more preventative, holistic, patient-centred medical ethos. |
