Methadone toll: Addicts ended up in hospital 4,500 TIMES
THOUSANDS of drug addicts have ended up in hospital after overdosing on methadone.
New figures reveal the extent of admissions for those who have overdosed on the very treatment that is supposed to help them.
Scottish Tory research found there have been 4,479 hospital admissions caused by methadone since records began in the mid-1990s.
Annual figures have fluctuated from a low of 150 to a high of 276, with no clear pattern emerging. Last year, 222 people were taken to hospital after overdosing on the heroin-replacement substance.
Scottish Tory public health spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘Methadone is meant to help heroin addicts – now we learn it has hospitalised thousands.
‘It’s a disgrace that the system is so utterly dependent on parking vulnerable addicts on this dangerous substance when what they need is actual help.
‘We need to remember the vast majority of these people want to give up drugs. But all they get is an SNP Government which either feeds them methadone with no alternative considered, or allows them to inject the ruinous heroin for free at a state-run facility. That’s unimaginative and will only worsen Scotland’s already shocking drug problem. It’s time to see efforts going into changing the lives of heroin addicts for good, not making things worse for them.’
Methadone was rolled out across Scotland during the 1990s as the main treatment for opiate dependency, alongside needle exchange clinics for ‘harm reduction’ against HIV.
Users are supposed to progress from methadone to abstinence from heroin. But methadone itself is highly addictive and there are concerns about the number of addicts. Last year, methadone was prescribed for 26,000 Scots.
Dr Ian Oliver, a former chief constable and now a leading authority on drugs, said: ‘Methadone has always been known to be more addictive than heroin and responsible researchers have found value for its use in only 3 per cent of cases.
‘Any government policy must be motivated by the consideration that it must first do no harm. The SNP Government appears to think otherwise.’
The latest figures follow evidence from recovering addicts in Scotland to MPs that people can remain on methadone for 30 years, ‘walking around like zombies’.
They told Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee that instead of giving people methadone, more money should be spent on rehabilitation services to get them clean.
The committee is examining how to tackle rising drug deaths in Scotland, which hit their worst ever level of 934 in 2017.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘All medicines are prescribed based on clinical need. Prescriptions should be reviewed regularly to achieve the best possible outcomes.’
‘Walking around like zombies’