Thank you for sharing this excellent article, [...]. For members of this community, one of the most important points is made in the last sentence:
Ideal legislation should require informed consent, limit new prescriptions to short term, and grandfather in those already physically dependent on long term benzodiazepines—ensuring that the decision to withdraw from the drug remains theirs, and that they have access to a prescription for as long as needed to complete a safe taper.
The number of ‘‘taken as prescribed,’ physically dependent members reporting that prescribers are either refusing to prescribe benzodiazepines at all or forcing too-rapid discontinuation has been increasing.
