UK. Is the UK Sleepwalking into a Pregabalin Crisis?
UK. Is the UK Sleepwalking into a Pregabalin Crisis?
Across the UK, a new pharmaceutical drug is slowly taking over the market. The illicit use of pregabalin has emerged as a significant and rapidly evolving public health concern, with particular impact in areas marked by high deprivation, poly-substance use, and entrenched opioid markets such as Teesside, Middlesbrough. Originally licensed as an anticonvulsant and prescribed for neuropathic pain and generalised anxiety disorder, pregabalin has increasingly become one of the most popular ‘street’ drugs locally.
In response to the troubling increase in illicit use, the UK’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recently called for evidence on the ‘misuse and harms of pregabalin and gabapentin’, with the aim of understanding how these medications are being prescribed and diverted into illicit markets. (Talking Drugs, UK, 13.04.2026)
https://www.talkingdrugs.org/is-the-uk-sleepwalking-into-a-pregabalin-crisis/