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Health
authorities in Scotland are planning to
phase out methadone treatment programmes
for heroin addicts and offer instead
alternative therapies and residential
rehabilitation programmes.
The
change in policy follows mounting
evidence which has shown that methadone
programmes, first introduced in the
1970s, have failed to reduce addiction
rates or cut the number of drug-related
deaths.
The
shift in policy indicates a radical
change in attitude from using the heroin
substitute to wean addicts off heroin -
to encouraging abstinence by offering
support via a range of other treatment
options.
Methadone is also an addictive opiate
and costs the government around £12m a
year and research suggests that five
years after starting the treatment, 90%
of addicts are still taking methadone.
Recent
government figures show that
drug-related deaths rose to a record
high of 421 in 2006 and methadone was
present in 97 of those recorded deaths,
25 more than in the previous year.
The
new drug strategy, the first significant
change in policy in almost a decade,
will be unveiled in Scotland this week
and is expected to include a
multi-million-pound expansion in the
range of alternatives to methadone to
help addicts back into society.
These
are expected to include psychological
therapies, residential abstinence
programmes, support for families and
children and education and employment
training - all designed to help addicts
live a drug-free life.
A
recent study by the Centre for Drug
Misuse at Glasgow University revealed
that whereas one in three heroin users
who received residential treatment was
drug free after three years, only 3 per
cent of those who were placed on
methadone were drug free after the same
period. |
