Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘My parents pay for my daily drugs fix’
A DUNDEE drug addict has revealed his parents give him £30 a day to fund his habit in a bid to prevent him resorting to crime.
Dean Johnston, of the Hilltown, today spoke to the Tele about his ongoing battle with drugs.
The 35-year-old said he was desperate to be put back on his methadone programme after it was cancelled.
Dean, who lost his partner Claire Finnigan, 30, to an overdose earlier this year, said: “I really worry that I’m going to die because I feel I have no option other than to get a daily fix of illegal drugs out on the streets.
“I hate living like this but I don’t know what else to do. My partner Claire was taken off her methadone programme and resorted to taking illegal drugs — she died from an overdose of a mixture of drugs. I can see the same happening to me if I’m not put back on methadone.”
Dean began taking drugs when he was 14 and said his habit spiralled out of control. He ended up using hard drugs, including heroin.
He also regularly uses street Valium, identified as being in the system of 17 out of 31 people who have died from drugs in a six-month period this year.
Dean said he had been on 80g of methadone a day but that was stopped overnight after he was found to have diazepam in his system during a test.
He added: “I know I shouldn’t have taken it but being taken off my methadone completely has been awful. I can’t get through the day without something.
“My parents are now giving me up to £30 every day to fund my habit so that I don’t resort to shoplifting or other crime to pay for my drugs.
“People say ‘why don’t you just stop?’ If it was as easy as that I would but it’s not. I really want to get clean but for that to happen I need to get back on a methadone programme.”
Dean’s mum Gail, 60, who is battling cancer, said she has already lost a family member to drugs and couldn’t face it happening again. She added: “What option do we have but to support our son? It’s horrific living like this but we will stick by him — I dread that knock on the door telling us he has overdosed.”
A spokesman for Dundee Health and Social Care Partnership said: “A decision to refuse a methadone prescription would never be taken easily and would only be after several attempts to minimise the risk to that individual have been unsuccessful and where the risk of death of combining prescribed controlled drugs with illicit drugs continued or if the individual stopped taking their methadone.
“When diazepam (Valium) use is also present, this increases the risks significantly for an individual.
“In these cases, a planned reduction over a prolonged period would be considered but this form of prescribed medication would never be stopped abruptly.
“As with any other drugs, when diazepam is used illicitly this is extremely hard to monitor due to unknown quantities consumed.”