Diamorphine is cheaper than methadone or bupe, no? Was last time I looked anyway. Which was admittedly several years back now. It's puritanical ideaology pure and simple that allow treatmemt to be ruled by methadone - and to a slightly less extent bupe. As mentioned above: you're not supposed to feel good on taxpayers money. Even if it does save taxpayers money, massively reduce crime and health problems, etc. I can't stand methadone but it has its place. As does bupe. And as do more or less all the other opiates. There should be no artificial line between what is acceptable and what is not acceptable - should be purely a medical matter based on what actually works for the individual.
Also, SHM is spot on with the manifesto stuff - who the fuck cares what is said in a manifesto? Has any party ever done what they said in their manifesto? 8)
And unless the DSPs are all lying, and those of us who attend them are all blind, it's pretty obvious that drug services have gone to absolute shite since the coalition's been in power. I have absolutely no doubt they'd be even worse if the tiny mitigating factor of the turncoat, scumfuck, LibDems didn't still have vague memories of being decent human beings before they sold their collective souls to be Tory fags. (That's "fag" in the Eton sense before anybody - underlings who do what their Bigger Boy overlords tell them to do without question).