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Anorak News | The truth about the Daily Mail’s poison Nurofen panic

The truth about the Daily Mail’s poison Nurofen panic

by | 29th, May 2012

WHEN the Daily Mail thundered”PAINKILLER ‘SABOTAGED – Animal rights protestors suspected of tampering with Nurofen” we blanched. Time to toss away those over-the-counter pain relief capsules. This sounded serious. The Mail added: “‘Saboteur’ puts up to 500,000 powerful anti-psychotic drugs in packets of Nurofen Plus sold in the UK.”

The paper warned us:

“Dangerous anti-psychotic drugs may have been deliberately placed in thousands of packets of Nurofen Plus by animal rights activists, it emerged last night… It is suspected militant activists carried out the sabotage operation with the intention of damaging Nurofen Plus’s makers, Reckitt Benckiser. The company may have been targeted because it tests its products on animals.”

Time, then, to meet Christopher McGuire. The codeine addict has been sentenced to 18 months prison. He is not an animal rights activist. He is a drug addict:

“McGuire, who went to university at 16, took 32 Nurofen Plus tablets a day to feed his secret habit. But after losing his job he struggled to pay for his addiction. The 31-year-old’s scheme saw him fill empty packets with the Seroquel he was being prescribed for schizophrenia. The court heard how McGuire then tried to buy Nurofen Plus at pharmacies using a card he knew would be declined. This created the distraction he needed to discreetly swap his doctored packet for a fresh one and walk away.”

So. No animal rights protestors poisoning the public, then. Will the Daily Mail now apologise to animal rights campaigners?



Posted: 29th, May 2012 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink