If you are prescribed a particular medication from a local pharmacy, it is because it is the best way to help recover or manage a condition.
A lot of care is taken with prescriptions because of the power of the medications involved, and this is why you will have regular follow-ups with your GP or community pharmacist to ensure it is working as expected for you.
One aspect of prescription medications that can sometimes be surprising is how certain medications can be prescribed that would otherwise be extremely illegal to possess.
The one that is perhaps best known in recent years is cannabis, which whilst a Class B drug when used recreationally is sometimes prescribed as a treatment, most commonly for extremely rare debilitating forms of epilepsy in strictly controlled doses and conditions.
The very public case of Alfie Dingley led to a change in the law that allowed doctors to prescribe medicinal cannabis. However, it is not the only example of a drug classified under the Misuse of Drugs Act that is regularly prescribed to treat specific conditions.
Cocaine
Whilst the legacy of the Class A drug cocaine when it comes not only to its illegal recreational use but also the trade surrounding it is well-known, it has been and continues to be prescribed to this day albeit for extremely rare uses.
Whilst “cocaine drops” were somewhat infamously available over the counter as a toothache cure for children, it is commonly used as a local anaesthetic, a numbing agent and a vasoconstrictor, although in all three cases, this is both rare and almost exclusively limited to surgery.
It can sometimes be used as a diagnostic test for Horner syndrome. Given that cocaine causes the pupils to dilate, if someone is given cocaine eye drops and one eye dilates less than the other, then it is often a sign of damage to the sympathetic trunk.
Heroin
Opiates in general are heavily controlled due to their highly addictive qualities, but they are prescribed on occasion when a severe level of pain relief is required and other painkillers simply are not working.
The most common of these is codeine, otherwise a Class B drug, which is available either on its own on prescription or in a much lower dose mixed with paracetamol under the name co-codamol.
Heroin, supplied under the name diamorphine, is usually prescribed for severe pain. Due to the well-known addictive qualities of the Class A drug, it is most widely used in palliative care.
Because, by definition, palliative care is only used to relieve pain in the case of terminal or inoperable conditions, the concerns about addiction are less pronounced, and the benefits to quality of life given the limited duration of it are seen as far more important.
It is rarely used to help treat pain after operations, as well as managing pain in cases of heart attacks, physical trauma and severe chronic pain.
In a very small number of cases, it has been prescribed to heroin addicts as an alternative to methadone if it has not helped with the extreme withdrawal symptoms that come with heroin abuse.