BILL FOR DISPENSING METHADONE DOUBLES TO OVER 16M

THE bill for handing out methadone to heroin addicts has almost
doubled in five years to more than ?16million.

Dispensing the drug - which is used to wean users off heroin - rose 84
per cent from ?9million in 2003-4 to ?16.6million in 2008-9.

Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said she wanted to see a reduction
in the number of heroin addicts who are given the substitute drug.

She said: "These are bone-chilling figures. Under eight years of
Labour and the Lib Dems, Scotland's drug dependency became a methadone
dependency.

Mistake "The SNP must not make the same mistake.

"That is why the Scottish Conservatives won the fight to secure a new
national drugs strategy, based on recovery and abstinence.

"Methadone must stop being the treatment of first resort."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Just over one year ago we
published Scotland's first drug strategy since devolution.

"It was widely welcomed by experts and approved unanimously by
Parliament.

"Central to the strategy is the concept of recovery from problem drug
use. We want to see more people move on from their drug use, towards
drug-free lives as an active and contributing member of society."

The mum of a child who died from a suspected methadone overdose has
been charged with poisoning her daughter.

Bonny Richards, 27, of Coleford, Gloucestershire, and a 31-year-old
man who has not been named, have both been charged with administering
poison to 14month-old Holly Agius. They also face charges of assault
and child neglect.