METHADONE ON TRIAL

Social affairs correspondent

Friday 31 August 2012

n DRUG death figures published this month showed that of 584 deaths in Scotland last year - a record high - almost half had involved methadone.

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Stephen Naysmith

Responding to the figures, critics slammed the policy of prescribing the opiate-substitute, suggesting that maintaining drug-users on methadone was leaving them addicted to an equally addictive substance, which some take indefinitely, with few making progress to becoming drug free. One newspaper claimed a freedom of information request showed the policy was costing £36m a year, and "named and shamed" the pharmacists it alleged were raking in a fortune by "dishing out" the medication.

Harm reduction experts argue the drug saves lives and helps users cut injecting and crime-related behaviour – and point out the majority of cases where methadone is involved in drugs deaths, it is illicitly-obtained street methadone taken in combination with other substances, not on prescription.However, high-profile interventions, including a BBC3 programme featuring recovered celebrity addict Russell Brand, have added to the sense that methadone therapy is on trial.

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METHADONE ON TRIAL

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