Addicts ‘battle to kick drugs while in prison’
‘Easy access’ means even non-users get hooked
DRUG addicts have told how they are struggling to kick their deadly habits – even while behind bars.
The ‘universal availability’ of narcotics – such as heroin and the ‘zombie’ drug spice – has sparked an addiction crisis in Scotland’s prisons, a report warns.
Researchers say ‘easy access’ to smuggled drugs is fuelling the ‘fraught’ environment.
They warn that substance use in jails is so widespread that even those who have never tried drugs before are getting hooked.
Prisoners who try to get clean have complained they are given opiate replacement treatment rather than the option to detox.
The report has prompted major security concerns about how illegal drugs are getting into prisons – and has sparked fears inmates are being trapped in a cycle of addiction.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘Our prisons should be places to help rehabilitate offenders but this has little chance of succeeding if they are rife with drugs. Unauthorised substance use in prisons has spiralled out of control under the SNP, rising by almost 1,000 per cent.
‘SNP Ministers have talked about tackling drug-taking in prisons for far too long without taking any meaningful action.’
The scale of the crisis was outlined in a Community Justice Scotland report this month. Researchers wrote: ‘Easy access to drugs was universal. The number of people misusing drugs was described as particularly concerning. The prison environment was felt to be unsafe and fraught as a result.’
One 47-year-old inmate estimated about three-quarters of his hall had addiction issues.
One prisoner told how he only started taking heroin in prison ‘to blank out how long I had left’.
Often, in a bid to control heroin addictions, medics will administer heroin replacement therapies including methadone and subutex.
But concerns have been raised that inmates are simply replacing one addiction with another
Researchers found ‘strong opinions around provision of methadone ... there were reservations about the risks of its highly addictive nature and fear of dependency’.
A 34-year-old prisoner said: ‘I’m taking subutex right now but all I want is a detox. They could help me with giving me a detox in this prison but they won’t do it. They just say, take methadone or nothing.’
Another said he’d resorted to violence so he would be sent to segregation and undergo a detox.
He said: ‘I used to smash up halls if I felt my habit was too strong. I’d do that so I could get segregated.’
Concerns over heroin substitutes came after The Scottish Mail on Sunday revealed last week almost half of prisoners in some Scottish jails are being prescribed them.
On Wednesday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced £250 million in funding to tackle the ‘national disgrace’ of drug deaths.
Last night, a Scottish Prison Service spokesman agreed many inmates face challenges with addiction but added: ‘There is a range of support available. Decisions about opiate replacement therapy are medical and are not taken by the Scottish Prison Service.’
Half of all prisoners in Scottish jails are taking methadone OUR STORY: Last week’s MoS