PRISONS AWASH WITH HEROIN SUBSTITUTE

The use of a heroin substitute as a recreational drug is spreading
across Britain's prison system 'like wildfire', according to new
research. In some prisons as many as 70 per cent of inmates regularly
take Subutex illegally, the research found, and many former offenders
are returning to civilian life with a taste for the drug.

Subutex, like methadone, is prescribed to heroin users to help wean
them off addiction. Available in pill form, it is less addictive and
less likely to trigger fatal overdoses than heroin or methadone
because it does not suppress breathing as much. It is more expensive
than methadone and not prescribed as extensively.

According to research published in Druglink, the magazine of the
charity DrugScope, the illicit market in the substance is growing
exponentially. The pills - known as 'subbies' - are popular with
prisoners because they are small and easier to conceal than heroin or
crack. The drug, the brand name for the opioid buprenorphine, is also
harder to detect in tests.

An 8mg 'subby' tablet worth UKP5 on the illegal market outside prison
is worth UKP40 inside where it is crushed and snorted or, say
reports, injected.

The magazine says the drug is widely used around jails across the
northeast and northwest of England. Significant levels of Subutex use
among ex-prisoners have also been detected in Middlesborough,
Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham, according to Druglink's latest
annual street drugs survey.

The increasing illegal use of Subutex has served to highlight the
problems of drug abuse in Britain's prisons, according to experts. It
comes at a time when the Prison Service has suggested it may have to
cut back on drug testing in prisons as a cost-cutting exercise.

The previously unrecognised popularity of the drug in Britain's jails
saw it added to the list of substances tested across 40 prisons by
the Prison Service between April and July this year. The illegal use
of Subutex is also starting to alarm experts in other countries.
Authorities in Georgia report that the drug has become the most
widely abused narcotic in the country.