March 9, 2006
Prescribed vs. proscribed
A smarter way to think about heroin addiction:
[Scotland’s] drugs tsar, Tom Wood, has urged the Scottish Executive to consider prescribing heroin to addicts on the NHS.
Mr Wood, chairman of the Edinburgh Drugs and Alcohol Action Team, said providing a controlled supply of the class A drug to certain addicts may prove more helpful than giving them methadone.
The former deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police said methadone was being too widely used in Edinburgh and radical alternatives needed to be considered.
… More than 3000 people a year are being prescribed methadone in Lothian and the number is rising faster than elsewhere in Scotland.
The number of addicts being prescribed the heroin substitute - which has been condemned as a treatment because it is more addictive than heroin - rose by 42 per cent in the Lothians between 2002 and 2004, from 2191 to 3104. That compared to a 17 per cent rise across Scotland as a whole.
The estimated cost of prescribing methadone in the Lothians is almost £2 million, with an £11.6m bill for the entire country.
Mr Wood’s interest in the possibility of prescribing heroin was spurred by events in Switzerland, where the first large-scale investigation into its benefits is taking place. Initial results suggest it can benefit addicts who had been continuing to use heroin after being prescribed methadone. The Swiss findings suggest prescribing heroin to this hard-core group of users can speed their recovery and cut the amount of crime committed by 60 per cent.
More on the drug war here.
Posted by Stephen at 4:52 PM in Drugs | Permalink | TrackBack (0)
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