METHADONE 'FAILING TO CUT CRIMINALITY'

Study Prompts Call To Overhaul Treatment For Addicts

MINISTERS ARE being urged to overhaul Scotland's methadoneprogrammeafter
new state-funded research showed that giving addicts the heroin substitute
failed to cut crime.

The Glasgow University study also found prescribing methadone did not
increase the chances of addicts becoming drug-free. Its sole benefit was a
drop in addicts "topping up" with heroin.

The Conservatives seized on the paper, which was co-authored by Scotland's
leading authority on addiction, Professor Neil McKeganey, of Glasgow's
Centre for Drug Misuse and Research.
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An estimated 22,000 people receive methadone in Scotland, more than 90% of
all heroin addicts, and NHS spending on the drug has more than doubled in
five years. Last year, purchase and dispensing costs rose 19% to UKP25.7
million.

The average heroin addict, meanwhile, steals around UKP50,000 of property
each year to feed their habit.

There is also concern the programme merely replaces one addictive drug with
another, and that people are "parked" on methadone for years with little
prospect of abstinence. Recent research found only 3% of those treated with
methadone had become drug-free after three years.

The new study compared the outcome for 68 addicts who started methadone
treatment, 46 of whom stayed with it over 33 months, and 364 addicts
receiving other forms of treatment outside prison, such as counselling,
residential rehab, and detoxification programmes.

It found prescribing methadone was no better than other treatments at
cutting "acquisitive crime", such as "drug dealing, housebreaking,
shoplifting and thefts from persons". Even giving high doses of the drug
failed to reduce crime.

It reported: "Those still on methadone maintenance were not more likely to
have reduced their criminality (measured by the number of days on which
they committed acquisitive crimes in the previous three months) compared
with the rest of the sample."

The study also found "no significant difference between the
methadone-maintainedsampleand other interviewees in their propensity to
abstain from heroin use, nor was there any difference between the two
groups in the mean reduction over time in their self-reported dependence on
drugs".

McKeganey told the Sunday Herald the research debunked the claim by
methadone advocates that it helped cut crime. "It's frequently said that
methadone is a way of reducing criminality, but the research did not find
that at all.

"The problem with methadone is that it has overwhelmed the other available
treatments. We have been very good at pulling large numbers of drug users
into the methadone programme without being clear about the benefits."

"If you asked me the most successful way of reducing criminality in
Scotland, my answer would be getting on top of our drug problem," he added.
"The government's new drugs strategy promises a focus on recovery - that
has to mean people coming off methadone."

Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said: "I have never disputed that
methadone has a part to play in providing a bridge for some addicts between
dependency and recovery, but this new analysis shatters one of the alleged
benefits of a widespread methadone harm-reduction programme - namely less
crime committed by addicts.

"This is another wake-up call to those who insist the wholesale parking of
addicts on a legal drug is preferable to leaving them on an illegal one.
This is more evidence which backs up our insistence that Scotland needs a
new drugs strategy, based on recovery leading to abstinence. Methadone
alone is nowhere near good enough."

A Scottish government spokesman said: "Our national drugs strategy,
unanimously endorsed by the parliament in June, was clear that recovery
must be the focus of all drug treatment and rehabilitation services.

"Evidence shows methadone can help stabilise those at risk of falling back
into chaotic lifestyles and that it is both valuable and necessary. The
drugs strategy recognises the need to help people move on from methadone
through other treatments. Different people with different circumstances
inevitably means different routes to recovery."