IN THE NEWS| HEROIN - Scotland October 2006 - Methadone has a 97% failure rate |
> EDDIE BARNES
> POLITICAL EDITOR ([email protected])
> http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id99132006
> A KEY government drugs policy has been exposed as a shocking failure
> after it emerged that giving methadone to heroin addicts has a 97%
> failure rate.
>
> In a damning indictment of the Scottish Executive's 'softly softly'
> approach to managing the heroin problem, research found that three
> years after receiving methadone only 3% of addicts remained totally drug-free.
>
> The same study, by Scotland's leading drugs expert, found that there
> was a 29% success rate among addicts who went 'cold turkey' in a
> rehabilitation centre.
>
> The research also spelled out the wider social benefits of coming off
> drugs. Those free of addiction were seven times less likely to commit
> crime than addicts and were far more likely to be in work or education.
>
> Methadone has been used since the 1980s in Scotland as a controlled
> and supposedly safe heroin substitute.
>
> But the programme, which costs around £12m a year, has proved
> increasingly controversial. The number of addicts receiving methadone
> quadrupled in a decade and there have been tragedies involving
> children overdosing on the drug.
>
> The new figures - which show methadone use is only marginally better
> than doing nothing at all - are a severe embarrassment for ministers
> and last night triggered demands for a tougher drugs policy. Executive
> sources last night admitted that they were frustrated by the lack of
> progress and would review current practice.
>
> The report was compiled by Neil McKeganey, Professor of Drug Misuse
> Research at the University of Glasgow, and one of the most
> authoritative figures on drugs in Scotland. His survey is the first
> major assessment of the Executive's methadone programme.
>
> McKeganey told Scotland on Sunday: "The remarkable figure is that if
> we weren't giving them anything at all, after three years some people
> would have come off anyway. Around 1% or 2% would have stopped, just
> because they had had enough.
>
> "You have to ask yourself: the methadone programme is estimated to
> cost around £12m a year.
>
> "If all you are doing is getting 3% of people off drugs after three
> years - you may say that it is a cheaper programme than residential
> rehabilitation - but is it justified when it gets so few people off?"
>
> He added: "When you compare people on methadone with addicts who have
> abstained from drugs, their lives are in a better state, they are more
> likely to be in employment; they are doing a lot better."
>
> McKeganey's report was based on interviews with 695 drug users who
> began treatment for their addiction in 2001. The majority were given
> methadone-based care, while a small percentage were placed in
> residential rehabilitation.
>
> The authors then interviewed them 33 months afterwards to find out
> whether, over a 90-day period, they had come off drugs.
>
> For those on the most common form of treatment - methadone maintenance
> - only 3.4% were clear. For those who had been in residential
> rehabilitation or gone 'cold turkey', often for up to nine months and
> without any methadone, the figure was 29.4%.
>
> The research also proved the clear social benefits of getting addicts
> off drugs. Of those who were 'clean', some 59% were in employment or
> taking an education course, as opposed to only 29% of those who were
> still on drugs.
>
> A total of 79% of those who were drug-free said they felt better, as
> opposed to 47% of drug users.
>
> The biggest difference, however, was on crime. Only 13% of those who
> were drug-free admitted to committing any crime. The figure for those
> who were on drugs was a staggering 91%.
>
> McKeganey concluded: "In Scotland at the present time, approaching
> 20,000 drug users are thought to be receiving methadone. By
> comparison, there are relatively few residential rehabilitation
> services - indeed on the basis of information provided by the Scottish
> Executive, only 2% of drug users initiating drug abuse treatment in
> Scotland are provided with residential rehabilitation. There may well
> be a case for ensuring greater access to residential rehabilitation
> services within Scotland than is currently the case."
>
> A spokesman for Jack McConnell said he backed McKeganey. "The First
> Minister respects the work of Neil McKeganey. He is in no doubt that
> these issues are among the most pressing in Scotland and he is as
> frustrated as the public about people being in long-term programmes
> rather than becoming drug-free."
>
> Annabel Goldie, leader of the Scottish Tories, who has been
> campaigning for more rehab centres, seized on the findings. "This
> study underpins everything we have been saying in recent years.
> Methadone, which was meant to be a bridge, is no such thing, as these
> findings sharply and disturbingly reveal.
>
> "Clearly, the way forward if we are serious about reducing drug
> addiction in Scotland and helping to keep more people off drugs, is to
> expand rehabilitation facilities."
>
> She added: "Taking addicts off drugs is not just good for them, it is
> good for their families and the whole of society as drug misuse fuels
> so much of the crime in this country."
>
> However, there was a backlash from official drug agencies last night.
>
> David Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, which is
> backed by the Scottish Executive, said: "It is depressing to see the
> debate being manipulated so that drugs treatment becomes a question of
> either abstinence and residential rehabilitation versus methadone and
> community-based services.
>
> "There is a need for more rehabilitation services. But what is needed
> is a wider range of services which best meet people's needs when and
> where they are most likely to benefit from it."
>
> McKeganey's report will be published in full next month.
>
> Hard habit to break
> METHADONE was first produced in the late 1930s by German scientists
> looking for a painkiller that would be easier to use than morphine.
>
> It began being used to treat addiction in the late 1940s.
>
> Although chemically unlike morphine or heroin, it also acts on the
> opioid receptors in the brain and thus produces many of the same
> effects as these drugs. It also lasts in the body for a relatively
> long time, up to 26 hours, making it useful in efforts to keep addicts
> off harder drugs.
>
> In Scotland, prescriptions for methadone have risen from 98,131 in
> 1994 to 411,339 in 2005. The annual cost to the Scottish NHS of
> methadone is about £12m. Addicts are given their methadone to drink at
> a clinic or chemist and must consume it there and then. However some
> addiction experts believe that making patients drink their dose in
> full view of the general public stigmatises those who are trying to
> wean themselves from drugs.
>
> In addition, methadone can have destructive side effects on unborn
> children.
>
> A recent Scottish Executive study of clinicians' attitudes to
> methadone found many believed the drug was a long-term treatment
> rather than a short-term step towards "going clean" and that some
> addicts could expect to be years on methadone.
>
> Related topics
>
> Drugs policy
> http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid"0
> Heroin
> http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid62
> This article:
> http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id99132006
>
Posted October 30, 2006
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December 15, 2007
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