Sir, - The alarmist headline on a recent report, "Addicts swamp GP
surgeries", should be taken with a grain of salt...just like "one
inner-city practice has had a 100-fold increase in the number of
people requiring treatment in just five years". There may have been
one single consultation for addiction in 1992 and 100 in 1997. Big
deal!

Medical services have to treat all these drug addicts whether they are
on formal treatment (usually methadone) or not. The difference is that
we are treating the complications of street drug use on the one hand
(overdose, infections, trauma, etc) or prescribing and counselling on
the other.

The medical literature gives clear guidance on how to treat heroin
addicts. Abstinence orientated treatment suit some addicts and should
be encouraged where possible. As used widely elsewhere in Scotland,
supervised methadone dosing is safe and effective for opioid
dependency. This can be implemented by GPs and community pharmacies.
It can actually save up to seven times its cost and reduces mortality
by 75 per cent. This translates to a massive saving of young lives.

"The burden facing the health services in Aberdeen" will be far
greater if correct treatment is not implemented now. The drug problem
needs a scientific approach and not sensational alarmism.

(Dr) Andrew Byrne Redfern Street, Redfern New South Wales, Australia
ajbyrne@ozemail.com.au