Taking a long-term approach
THE explosion in heroin abuse in Scotland in the 80s, coupled with the resultant spread of HIV from shared needles, led to the wide implementation of methadone programmes.
This “harm reduction” model holds that many addicts face relapse and overdose if they try to break free from drugs through abstinence without proper long-term social and health services support.
Many academics argue that many of Scotland’s 26,000 methadone users are able to function normally despite relying on a daily prescription.
These people rarely feature in the media because of the stigma against methadone.
The long-term nature of methadone treatment, however, gives rise to many complaints from patients and affected families, who claim people have been “parked” on the prescribed drug and virtually forgotten.
Media organisations voicing concern about decades-long methadone treatments will invariably be accused of spreading stigma.
The UK Government’s official position on opiate replacement therapy is that it may be better for some high-risk people to be treated for a lifetime than to try to break free from the addiction.
The big aggravating factor in Scotland is the horrific rise of street drugs like “blues” – the fake Valium benzodiazepine pills that now feature in more than half of our drug deaths.
Anyone mixing a methadone prescription with street drugs and alcohol is playing Russian roulette with their life.