'I lost two years after GP prescribed oxycodone for the pain of a 70mph crash'

A woman who was badly injured in a 70mph crash on a dual carriageway says she barely remembers two years of her life after being prescribed ultra-strong painkillers. Louise James, 52, from Reading, says her personality completely changed after she started taking prescribed oxycodone.

The crash left Louise with at least 15 health conditions, including fibromyalgia, arthritis, hypothyroidism, endometriosis and spinal trauma. She said: "I went from being an active professional who absolutely loved my job to someone who couldn't even shower more than once a week because of the pain.

"At my lowest point, I was questioning whether life was worth living because my conditions are all degenerative and I was in constant agony."

• Key symptom that means you have Covid not flu as cases of both rise
• 'My husband started being blunt and sarcastic - he died 11 months later'

Following the crash, Louise was repeatedly dismissed by A&E staff, who refused to X-ray her injuries, assuming she was seeking compensation. She was prescribed oxycodone by her GP, an opioid she describes as ‘synthetic heroin’.

"My GP told me it was a new medication that wouldn't cause constipation like tramadol," Louise said. "For the first time in my life, I didn't research a medication before taking it, I was just so desperate for relief."

The prescription led to a two-year period Louise barely remembers. For work, she would drive up and down the country, though she was heavily medicated. "People told me my personality had completely changed. Apparently, I told one friend that 'the old Louise is dead' – I don't even remember saying that, which shows how out of it I was." Louise added.

When Louise realised what she was taking, she went cold turkey, enduring what she called ‘two weeks of hell’ to break free from the addiction. Desperate for an alternative treatment option, Louise discovered medical cannabis in June 2024. After having an initial consultation, she was given a prescription by Alternaleaf to help manage the pain. She says the treatment has ‘given her hope again’.

"Before medical cannabis, I had declined to the point where I couldn't even potter in the garden – something I'd managed to do despite my conditions," Louise said. "I never got restorative sleep and would wake up feeling as terrible as when I went to bed, even after 12 hours.

"Now, when I sit in my chair or lie in bed, I can actually be out of pain. I can rest. The difference is absolutely mind-blowing. It's changed my perspective from questioning whether life was worth living to feeling like there's hope again."

The UK is one of the largest consumers of prescription opioids per 1,000 inhabitants, surpassing countries like the US, Germany and Canada. There are over one million people in the UK on prescription opioids , over 50,000 of whom have been taking them for six months or more, at an estimated cost of £500 million to the NHS annually.

A 2019 recommendation by Public Health England to reduce “highly addictive” long-term opioid use has successfully reduced opioid prescriptions in the UK by nearly half a million over four years. But the move away from opioids by the NHS, widely welcomed by advocacy groups, has created the need for safe, alternative pain medications to support the rising numbers of chronic pain patients.

Legalised in 2018, medical cannabis is available on the NHS but only for a limited range of conditions, notably excluding chronic pain. As a result, thousands of UK chronic pain patients seek treatment through private clinics, where specialist clinicians routinely prescribe medical cannabis for common chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia and arthritis.

Naibila Chaudhri, Medical Director at Alternaleaf said: “Alternative treatment options exist for chronic pain, such as medical cannabis, and are already supporting thousands of chronic pain sufferers in the UK. Unfortunately, there’s still low awareness of medical cannabis amongst healthcare professionals as well as outdated and persistent stigma that impacts patients.”