Anti-Methadone Crusade In Scotland

[Tchort]

Sunday Mail

7/5/2009

JUNKIES' FIX COSTS US Pounds 16M ; Methadone Bill Doubles: EXCLUSIVE
July 5, 2009 -- By MARK AITKEN
THE bill for handing out methadone to heroin addicts has almost doubled in five years to more than pounds 16million.

Dispensing the drug - which is used to wean users off heroin - rose 84 per cent from pounds 9million in 2003-4 to pounds 16.6million in 2008-9. Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said she wanted to see a reduction in the number of heroin addicts who aregiven 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.

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(c) 2009 Sunday Mail; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

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http://www.industrial-lasers.com/di...COSTS_US_Pounds_16M_;_Methadone_Bill_Doubles:

 

[qwe]

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.

100 years ago this was common practice. the recent deaths from overdose from opiates in babies, makes me wonder if it is still a somewhat common practice to calm babies with opiates

 

[Tchort]

It is disturbing that in an anti-MMT article they include a random case that happens to involve Methadone- as if all MMT patients are going home and poisoning their kids at the states expense.

Nevermind that MMT has the best success rate of any treatment of Heroin addiction (which would explain its status as a first-line treatment) 8)

 

[drug_mentor]

What they are trying to do totally sucks, just how stupid can they be? "Scotlands drug dependancy became a methadone dependancy," wait a minute, that is the fucking point of methadone.

The rising costs of methadone obviously means more people are using it, which means less heroin addicts, where is the sense in disputing a form of addiction treatment based on its increased success?

That bit at the end is a total joke, no relevance to the article whatsoever just an attempt to make methadone users look bad.

 

[Tchort]

I enjoy the pro-Methadone articles that use rough calculations to compare how much it costs society to incarcerate and/or heal active Heroin addicts vs the cost of putting that person on daily Methadone. It saves society a huge amount of money.

 

[drug_mentor]

These anti-drug crusading cry babies just want to make it tough for addicts though, if it wasn't methadone they were paying for they would be whingeing about whatever it was. They will never be happy until drug users get no treatment when its needed, are stigmatized even further and recieve heavy jail sentences.

Somehow I don't think you would hear too many people like Annabel Goldie complaining about the ridiculous cost of incarcerating drug users for 5 years+ on the first offense.

 

[CokeMonger]

I've never understood why they give out Methadone instead of just prescribing Suboxone... I always assumed it was the politics of funding methadone clinics .... maybe Scotland will go the right way and just give out Suboxone...

 

[Tchort]

I've never understood why they give out Methadone instead of just prescribing Suboxone... I always assumed it was the politics of funding methadone clinics .... maybe Scotland will go the right way and just give out Suboxone...

Methadone offers several advantages over Buprenorphine. It is also cheaper and the infrastructure for providing it (regulations, beurocracy, etc) are already in place.

Both drugs (and many more) should be available to every opioid addict. Often times an addict wishing to go on some kind of Opiate Replacement Therapy is stuck with whatever is available to them, or nothing at all. The great advantage of having both Bupe and Methadone is that patients who don't do well on one often do well on the other.

I am afraid that enthusiastic Bupe advocates will turn on Methadone programs, when that would be a huge, ignorant mistake.

EDIT:

Plus, the conservatives in Scotland who wrote this article (like the ones here in the US) want to do away with all Opiate Replacement Therapy- not just Methadone. If Buprenorphine was the primary drug being used for ORT in Scotland, this article would've been the same, only replace "Methadone" with "Buprenorphine". Out of a misguided hate for drug users and drug addicts, they attack this methodology of treating opioid addiction, with no facts on their side, just a bunch of hurtful hateful rhetoric.

 

[qwe]

does it seem to you guys that the world is changing?

to those who read the news often OUTSIDE of bluelight, does there seem to be a lot of good news out there too? ive been seeing so many positive articles lately that indicate the country is heading in a liberal direction surely, and that maybe even we as sheeple are being prepared for decrim. but it could be selection bias of people fetching articles to bluelight. i don't often read "real news"