Pubdate: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 Source: Daily Telegraph (UK) Contact: 2008 Telegraph Group Limited Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114 Author: Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) METHADONE PRESCRIPTIONS TO ADDICTS DOUBLE IN TWO YEARS, SAY TORIES Doctors Are Prescribing More Than Twice As Much of the Heroine Substitute Methadone to Drug Addicts As They Did Two Years Ago, Official Figures Show. Figures released by the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System show that the total number of methadone prescriptions issued rose from 70,363 in 2005-06 to 146,999 in 2007-8 - an increase of nearly 120 per cent. At the same time, just 0.2 per cent of drug users who sought treatment from their GP last year were referred for residential rehabilitation. The total number of addicts in rehab fell by more than 23 per cent compared to two years earlier. The Conservatives said that due to a lack of clear guidance, many doctors may be prescribing opiates outside of formal drugs treatment programmes. Mike Penning, a shadow health minister, added: "These figures show the continuing failure of the Labour Government to adequately tackle the problem of drug addiction, with methadone prescriptions more than doubling in the last two years alone. "Labour's lack of leadership on drugs has led to an explosion in methadone prescription, which all too often does little to help achieve abstinence. "Labour's policy is to try and manage drug addiction - our policy is to end drug addiction." Guidance issued by the National Treatment Agency does not require GPs to prescribe methadone as part of a formal, structured treatment programme, but merely states that doctors are "encouraged to do so". Last year, Professor Neil McKeganey from the Centre for Drug Misuse Research admitted that fewer than one in 10 addicted offenders who had been put through a methadone programme were still off drugs three years later. In 2007, 167 people lost their lives as a result of taking methadone, up from 98 in 2005, while just 17 per cent of those undertaking a treatment programme successfully completed the course. There were 4,306 users treated in residential rehab in 2007-8, compared to 5,617 in 200-6, with only 97 people of the 47,133 who sought help from their doctor for drug addiction referred to live-in care. The Conservatives have called for "abstinence-based drug treatment," where addicts are sent to rehab rather than being prescribed methadone. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake