PRISON DRUG POLICY 'KILLING ADDICTS'

Former Heroin User Warns Minister That Lack Of Medical Treatment And
Support Will Lead To More Suicides

A FORMER heroin addict who has suffered an enforced "cold turkey"
withdrawal from drugs in prison yesterday claimed that addicts are dying
from a lack of medical treatment and support in Scottish jails.

Mark Roberts, 28, of Glasgow, warned that more people will die unless the
Scottish Office reforms its policy towards drug users in prison.

Speaking after two of his friends committed suicide within days of each
other, he said that the surge in the suicide rate in Scottish prisons was
caused by neglect of users who are left alone to deal with the mental and
physical pain of withdrawal.

His claims came as The Scotsman discovered a disparity in the treatment of
prisoners in different jails. The Scottish Prison Service confirmed that
the policy is not uniform across Scotland, as treatment is at the
discretion of individual medical officers.

In Greenock, where 12 prisoners have killed themselves in three years,
three of them within the past three months, no-one is allowed prescriptions
of the heroin substitute, methadone.

Glasgow's Barlinnie prison, where there have been 38 in the past 12 years,
also refuses inmates methadone prescriptions. Saughton prison in Edinburgh,
where methadone is allowed, has only had two suicides in the past four
years.

The striking correlation is seen by drug experts as a major cause for
concern. David Liddell, director of Scottish Drugs Forum, said: "It is
unacceptable for someone's methadone prescription to be withheld. Prisoners
should have the same rights as anyone else. Better treatment of prisoners
could reduce the number of suicides."

In Glasgow, Mr Roberts, a former abuser, issued a stark message to Henry
McLeish, the Scottish home affairs minister, and Eddie Frizzell, the prison
chief executive, after five recent suicides and one attempted suicide.

Mr Roberts will send a petition, signed by many of the friends and family
of Gavin Hester and Mary Cowan - both recent suicides - to Mr McLeish,
urging him to introduce measures which would drastically cut deaths. These
are:

Allow medical prescriptions for methadone to continue inside prison.

Introduce withdrawal programmes for addicts.

Train prison officers in the basics of dealing with drug users.

Make trained counsellors available to help drug users who may be suffering
withdrawal.

Provide medical help for every remand and other prisoner to stop or reduce
their drug use.

Mr Roberts, a father of three who has been on remand in both Greenock and
Barlinnie jails, said: "I'm sick of so many pointless deaths. Mr McLeish
must act now. The present policy is inhumane. The drug user is locked up,
and left alone. No sympathy, no help, no medical treatment, nothing.

"Heroin withdrawal is bad, but without methadone it's worse. Far worse.
People hallucinate, they can't sleep. Thoughts of suicide go through your
head."

Professor Alan Miller, of the Scottish Human Rights Centre, said: "One of
the effects of coming off a drug addiction can be depression, and that
compounded with any other effect of being deprived of family, is clearly
going to effect the mental well-being of the inmate."

A Scottish Prisons Service spokesman said: "There is a national policy to
maintain prisoners on methadone where it is prescribed on the outside. This
would be for very short periods of time to maintain a continuity of care.

"However, this is subject to the discretion of the medical officer in the
prison. Some prison doctors do prescribe methadone; others do not. Greenock
does not have a methadone programme.

"I do not have available which prisons do and which do not. I know Saughton
does while Barlinnie does not. The respective systems within each prison is
a matter for the clinical judgement of the individual doctors. At this
moment I cannot say which of the prisoners who died had drug problems or
were on methadone."

Mr McLeish will make an announcement tomorrow on his response to the report
on the upsurge of suicides in Scottish prisons. His call for the report
came after The Scotsman revealed the alarming numbers of deaths of inmates,
particularly in Greenock, Barlinnie and Cornton Vale women's prison.

David Thomson, 30, became the latest inmate of a Scottish prison to try to
commit suicide. He was revived after attempting to hang himself at Greenock
on Sunday night and is still in a critical condition.