poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
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Methadone access woes cause despair
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IT WAS Christmas Eve and James* was desperate. Even 10 years later, his voice chokes as he remembers his trip from Newcastle to Sydney, a last-ditch attempt to get access to a life-saving methadone program.
''I had nowhere else to turn,'' he said. ''I believe … I would have murdered someone.''
So began a year of daily trips from Newcastle to the only treatment available in Sydney. He made the journey, which could take up to seven hours return, for three years, although later they allowedhim to take doses home.
James is one of the lucky people to have access to methadone in a system underfunded and lacking doctors and pharmacists who will provide the much-needed drug.
He told the Herald when he leaves the pharmacy with methadone he is regularly approached by people begging him for it. Many are women and ex-prisoners who have been released with a referral to a treatment centre that is unable, or unwilling, to take them on. ''It just makes me weep, these poor desperate bastards,'' he said.
A new study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, which followed 375 male heroin users in NSW prisons, found those who got methadone in prison and stayed on it afterwards were 20 per cent less likely to re-offend. They were also less likely to die.
Donna McKinnis, a pharmacist for 30 years, said the two pharmacies where she works in Newcastle turn away between four and six people a week because their regulated quota of 50 methadone patients is full. Last month, she tried to help a man who had come out of Long Bay jail but had been referred to a treatment centre in Newcastle that had a policy of not taking released prisoners, Ms McKinnis said. She called 17 doctors before finding someone who could help.
She believed ''pure snobbery'' stopped more pharmacists providing the drug.
The executive director of the Australian National Council on Drugs, Gino Vumbaca, said doctors were also not obligated to provide treatment.
''It's very detrimental to people living in some places,'' he said. ''Imagine if they could decide not to provide diabetes treatment or help people stop smoking.''
It also suffered significantly from underinvestment, but in this week's state budget the NSW government had committed more funding.
The Minister for Mental Health and Healthy Lifestyles, Kevin Humphries, said the government would provide $10 million over four years to treat drug and alcohol addiction, although it had not yet been decided how much would go to expanding methadone treatment.
In the 2011-12 financial year, $3.4 million is promised to expand access to opioid treatment programs.
A spokeswoman for NSW Health said the Newcastle region had received extra methadone funding after a 200 per cent increase in patient numbers over the past decade.
She said NSW Health was working with Justice Health to ensure patients leaving prison could get access to their methadone prescriptions.
*Not real name.
''I had nowhere else to turn,'' he said. ''I believe … I would have murdered someone.''
So began a year of daily trips from Newcastle to the only treatment available in Sydney. He made the journey, which could take up to seven hours return, for three years, although later they allowedhim to take doses home.
James is one of the lucky people to have access to methadone in a system underfunded and lacking doctors and pharmacists who will provide the much-needed drug.
He told the Herald when he leaves the pharmacy with methadone he is regularly approached by people begging him for it. Many are women and ex-prisoners who have been released with a referral to a treatment centre that is unable, or unwilling, to take them on. ''It just makes me weep, these poor desperate bastards,'' he said.
A new study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, which followed 375 male heroin users in NSW prisons, found those who got methadone in prison and stayed on it afterwards were 20 per cent less likely to re-offend. They were also less likely to die.
Donna McKinnis, a pharmacist for 30 years, said the two pharmacies where she works in Newcastle turn away between four and six people a week because their regulated quota of 50 methadone patients is full. Last month, she tried to help a man who had come out of Long Bay jail but had been referred to a treatment centre in Newcastle that had a policy of not taking released prisoners, Ms McKinnis said. She called 17 doctors before finding someone who could help.
She believed ''pure snobbery'' stopped more pharmacists providing the drug.
The executive director of the Australian National Council on Drugs, Gino Vumbaca, said doctors were also not obligated to provide treatment.
''It's very detrimental to people living in some places,'' he said. ''Imagine if they could decide not to provide diabetes treatment or help people stop smoking.''
It also suffered significantly from underinvestment, but in this week's state budget the NSW government had committed more funding.
The Minister for Mental Health and Healthy Lifestyles, Kevin Humphries, said the government would provide $10 million over four years to treat drug and alcohol addiction, although it had not yet been decided how much would go to expanding methadone treatment.
In the 2011-12 financial year, $3.4 million is promised to expand access to opioid treatment programs.
A spokeswoman for NSW Health said the Newcastle region had received extra methadone funding after a 200 per cent increase in patient numbers over the past decade.
She said NSW Health was working with Justice Health to ensure patients leaving prison could get access to their methadone prescriptions.
*Not real name.
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