CONCERN OVER REWARDS FOR DRUG USERS

The Government has heralded new figures showing record numbers of
drug users are receiving treatment amid concerns some addicts are
being given extra drugs for good behaviour.

An official study found many clinics in England rewarded users with
increased doses of heroin substitute methadone or anti-depressants
for providing clean urine samples.

The survey was conducted for the National Treatment Agency (NTA),
which runs the Government's UKP500 million-a-year addiction treatment
programme.

The NTA admitted offering drugs for anything other than clinical need
was unethical and said it wanted to see certain practices "squeezed
out of the system", the BBC reported.

Nearly a third of the 191 clinics surveyed said they would consider
giving extra methadone to those undergoing treatment for heroin
addiction whose urine samples were clear of crack and cocaine.

Less common rewards for drug users' good behaviour included
anti-depressants, shopping vouchers and access to detox.

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said the practice - which is
known as "contingency management" and has proved successful in
controlled US studies - raised "very serious issues".

While insisting the NTA did not accept the problem was on the scale
suggested, she said it was "unacceptable" and should not happen.

But the Conservatives said the Government's drugs policy was "a
shambles" and claimed giving addicts methadone did not get them off heroin.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "It is outrageous that the
Government is prepared to spend half a billion pounds on keeping
people addicted. Only the Conservatives have the will and the
policies to start combating addiction. We would expand a residential
abstinence-based drugs programme which has proved more successful in
getting addicts clean."