PM snubs face-to-face with Barry

Barry Haslam and his wife Sue with the YouTube video

CAMPAIGNER Barry Haslam’s request for a meeting to talk about prescription drug addicton has been rejected by the Prime Minister.

Despite being a national voice and recognised expert on the issues, his plea to Mr Cameron was denied in a letter.

Barry and his wife Sue told the Prime Minister they were sorry he couldn’t find time to meet them, and criticised his decision to hand their letter to the Department of Health.

Mr Haslam said the DoH is “clueless” on the issue of involuntary tranquilliser addiction, and urged Mr Cameron to watch his 23-minute YouTube video so he could see for himself the damage of long-term prescribed drug addiction, both to individuals and their families.

The chairman of Oldham Tranx, he has dedicated his life to the cause after he lost 10 years to his addiction. He has no memories from the age 32-42; his relationship with his wife survived only because of her loyalty, and he lost 10 years with his daughters, aged six and seven at the start.

The loss of time left Mr Haslam with an anger he has learned to harness and use in his fight to help some of the 1.5 million people in the UK currently addicted to prescription drugs.

He has teamed up with Oldham Addiction Dependency Solutions, which is due to launch new services in Oldham and Bury — “ADS-Haslam clinics for prescribed addiction.”

He had hoped to get the Prime Minister’s support and said: “It needs an inquiry and politicians to have the guts to start looking at this issue and to tackle it.”