A woman who broke her neck after a horror car crash says the only way she can manage her crippling pain is to buy pregabalin from Bury New Road.
The prescription drug, which is used to treat nerve pain and anxiety, has been linked to a growing number of deaths in England and Wales - and is being widely sold on the streets of Manchester.
One charity worker has described the drug as 'absolutely rife' in the city.
READ MORE: How lockdown turned Bury New Road into the black market drug capital of the north
The woman, who broke her neck in two places after a car accident in 2016, before breaking her coccyx in 2019, admits she has now become addicted to the drug.
Claiming her doctor will no longer prescribe her the drug on the grounds of its addictiveness, the woman says she has been left with 'no choice' but to buy them on the streets.
Despite being hospitalised after taking a bad batch, and losing several friends to pregabalin, she says she won't stop buying it unless her doctor can offer her a more effective pain reliever.
Speaking to the M.E.N, the woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, said she is 'frightened' of what will happen every time she consumes a pill bought on the streets, but says she now can't live without it.
"The withdrawal is really bad"
"After the car crash I was taken to hospital - it was quite serious. It was on the motorway so it was a high speed crash," she said.
"I was treated with pregabalin for pain relief whilst I was in hospital. I stopped taking it when my back started getting better but then I broke my coccyx a few years later.
"Now the pain just isn't going away. I see a pain specialist and they help me with breathing techniques to manage the pain but nothing helps as much as taking pregabalin."
Currently, the woman says the only pain relief she has been prescribed by her doctor is paracetamol.
"I'm currently sourcing pregabalin from a shop on Bury New Road. My cousin went there for me yesterday to buy some," she said.
"It just takes the pain away completely.
"Because I am addicted to them now when I don't have them, not only am I in agony, the withdrawal is really bad. It makes you feel weird and I get hallucinations."
The woman says she spent £50 on two boxes of pregabalin this week, but that it's impossible to tell exactly what quality you're buying.
"How much I have to take really depends on the batch," she said.
"If you get a strong batch I will only need to take one a day but sometimes after an hour if feels like you haven't taken anything."
It's understood much of the pregabalin supply in Manchester is coming from the Bury New Road area of Strangeways where boxes of 60 tablets can be bought for as little as £35.
But it's feared many of the pills are counterfeit, either imported from China or made in back street labs using unknown chemicals, which greatly increases the risk of harm.
"A number of my friends have died"
"I have been hospitalised after taking Pregabalin that I bought on Bury New Road," the woman reveals.
"I went there with a friend and I bought them from one of the shops opposite Strangeways. I didn't even make it back to the city centre before I collapsed.
"I woke up in the hospital hooked up to heart monitors.
"A number of my friends have died after taking Pregabalin they have purchased from Bury New Road. It is so tragic.
"Obviously it does frighten me but I can’t live like this without it."
In 2020, pregabalin was linked to 344 deaths in England and Wales - 60 in the North West alone. That's up from just one a decade earlier, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
Michael Bradley, from Strangeways-based charity On The Out, which helps former prisoners rebuild their lives, said pregabalin use is 'absolutely rife' in Manchester at the moment.
He said drug users from across the North West were coming to Bury New Road to buy tablets.
"I know a lad from Blackburn who comes here to buy it in bulk," he previously told the M.E.N.
"And it's not just pregabs, it's diazepam, gocaine (a cocaine-style legal high) and fake heroin.
"It's all fake stuff and nobody knows what in it. It's like a pandemic and Bury New Road is the centre for everybody in the North West and the North."
Pregabalin is being abused by people from all walks of society, but during the pandemic, its use among Manchester's homeless population is thought to have increased dramatically.
That's because a decline in the quality of heroin and the difficulty of begging or shoplifting during lockdown pushed addicts to seek cheaper alternatives.
During the pandemic heroin tested in Manchester has regularly been found to be below 10% purity, and on at least one occasion a batch was found to be just 2% pure, the Manchester Evening News understands.
Normally researchers would expect the levels to be between 20% and 40%.
That's led drug users - and dealers - to seek different products.
"It's absolutely rife"
When the Manchester Evening News visited Bury New Road in November last year, a reporter was offered drugs within minutes.
He was offered a box of 150 pregabalin tablets for £100, and after haggling for a bit the price was dropped to £80.
A short time later, he was approached by a teenage lad who said to him 'Yo, pregabs.' When the reporter told the man he was looking to pay around £40, he was informed he'd be able to get 'four strips' of the tablet.
He was in the area for less than 30 minutes in total.
Greater Manchester Police say they are aware of the sale of counterfeit medication in Cheetham Hill and Strangeways, and have launched a multi-agency operation in response.
Superintendent Helen Critchley, of GMP's Manchester division said: "The illegal use of prescription drugs can be extremely dangerous, and can have devastating consequences if used inappropriately.
"Across Greater Manchester, we have a dedicated, multi-agency operation known as ‘Op Cranium’ in response to the sale of counterfeit medication in Cheetham Hill, in which we work closely with partners to identify trends in drug use, ensure appropriate action is taken, and the correct support is available.
"Operation Cranium covers all aspects of our response to this issue, including proactive policing such as warrants, dedicated patrols and intelligence gathering, to identify those involved in the supply of drugs, and disrupt the criminal networks involved.
"In addition, multi-partnership work continues to take place, such as harm reduction visits to premises to offer appropriate advice, as well as harm reduction work, targeted at users and professionals who work with users.
"Dedicated patrols and a community plan remain in place across the Cheetham Hill and Strangeways area to target the sale of drugs, and we are working with our partners to tackle the deep-rooted issues around the area as part of the ongoing work around Op Cranium.
''A crucial part of our work to identify problematic areas and intelligence surrounding the supply of these drugs is through information from members of the public to help identify enforcement opportunities around individuals or vehicles.
"I would like to encourage anybody with information to come forwards, whether this is via the GMP website or anonymously through Crimestoppers.''
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