Policy paper

Diversion & illicit supply of medicines

ACMD’s report on diversion and illicit supply of medicines.

From:
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
Published
15 December 2016

Documents

ACMD report on diversion and illicit supply of medicines

PDF, 1.31 MB, 73 pages

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Evidence pack

PDF, 9.1 MB, 139 pages

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Details

The ACMD’s report on diversion and illicit supply of medicines (DISM) is in response to the Home Office’s commissioning letter of September 2013, in which the then Home Secretary requested the ACMD to explore the potential for medical and social harms arising from the illicit supply of medicines – predominantly controlled medicines.

This report:

  • explores the extent of DISM in the UK, to find out which drugs are being diverted
  • evaluates the extent of the medical and social harms of such diversion
  • assesses whether DISM displaces or replaces the use of known recreational drugs of abuse, such as heroin

In recent years, DISM has become of increasing public concern across the globe, although the hard evidence for this constituting a major problem other than in the USA is hard to find.

Published 15 December 2016