METHADONE PRESCRIPTIONS TO ADDICTS DOUBLE IN TWO YEARS, SAY TORIES

Doctors Are Prescribing More Than Twice As Much of the Heroine
Substitute Methadone to Drug Addicts As They Did Two Years Ago,
Official Figures Show.

Figures released by the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System
show that the total number of methadone prescriptions issued rose
from 70,363 in 2005-06 to 146,999 in 2007-8 - an increase of nearly
120 per cent.

At the same time, just 0.2 per cent of drug users who sought
treatment from their GP last year were referred for residential rehabilitation.

The total number of addicts in rehab fell by more than 23 per cent
compared to two years earlier.

The Conservatives said that due to a lack of clear guidance, many
doctors may be prescribing opiates outside of formal drugs treatment
programmes.

Mike Penning, a shadow health minister, added: "These figures show
the continuing failure of the Labour Government to adequately tackle
the problem of drug addiction, with methadone prescriptions more than
doubling in the last two years alone.

"Labour's lack of leadership on drugs has led to an explosion in
methadone prescription, which all too often does little to help
achieve abstinence.

"Labour's policy is to try and manage drug addiction - our policy is
to end drug addiction."

Guidance issued by the National Treatment Agency does not require GPs
to prescribe methadone as part of a formal, structured treatment
programme, but merely states that doctors are "encouraged to do so".

Last year, Professor Neil McKeganey from the Centre for Drug Misuse
Research admitted that fewer than one in 10 addicted offenders who
had been put through a methadone programme were still off drugs three
years later.

In 2007, 167 people lost their lives as a result of taking methadone,
up from 98 in 2005, while just 17 per cent of those undertaking a
treatment programme successfully completed the course.

There were 4,306 users treated in residential rehab in 2007-8,
compared to 5,617 in 200-6, with only 97 people of the 47,133 who
sought help from their doctor for drug addiction referred to live-in care.

The Conservatives have called for "abstinence-based drug treatment,"
where addicts are sent to rehab rather than being prescribed methadone.