"Breaking the habit"; a Controversial Report on Methadone

"Breaking the Habit"; Controversial Report on Methadone

"Breaking the habit"- Why the state should stop dealing drugs and start doing rehab, is a controversial UK report on methadone by Centre for Policy Studies.

Breaking the habit: why the state should stop dealing drugs and start doing rehab, by Kathy Gyngell, published by the Centre for Policy Studies, June 2011,is causing controversy in the UK.

"Breaking the habit" claims there are as many addicts today as there were in 2004/05. Fewer than 4% of addicts emerge from treatment free from dependency. Drug deaths continue to rise, as do the financial costs.

Critisism

The paper by the Centre for Policy Studies grabbed headlines on TV, radio and press at the end of June 2011– revealing a £3.6billion cost to taxpayers of keeping addicts dependent on drugs instead of helping them to quit.The paper has recived extensive critisism claiming that the facts are distorted in the report.

DrugScope, the national membership organisation for the drug sector, has called the report "inaccurate and misleading". DrugScope claims it is "grossly exaggerating the cost of methadone prescribing and seriously understating the achievements of drug treatment".

Read the critisism from Drugscope here: Misleading Centre for Policy Studies report ‘grossly exaggerates’ cost of methadone prescribing

The report cites 126 research references and Centre for Policy Studies stand by their report.

- Want to be drug free

"Breaking the habit" claims that in the past three years, referrals to rehabilitation units fell to an all-time low of 3,914 people. However, when asked what they want, addicts overwhelmingly reply that they want help to overcome their drug addiction. Becoming drug free was also the single goal expressed by 76% of drug users recruited to the Drug Outcome Research in Scotland study.

Heroin users were the most unhappy with their level of drug use: 81.2% wanted to stop using heroin completely. 76.6% of cocaine and crack users claimed they would like to stop using. But their wishes – and society’s expectations – have not been respected, according to the report by Centre for Policy Studies.

The view that drug free rehabilitation needs to be prioritized is echoing Addiction Today’s cover story in March 2011.

- Extremely expensive

Substitution treatment has been extremely expensive. The cost to the state of maintaining addicts on methadone has doubled since 2002/03 to £730million a year.

Drug users are estimated to receive £1.7billion in benefits a year, while the welfare costs of looking after the children of drug addicts are estimated at a further £1.2billion a year – the longer-term intergenerational costs are unquantifiable but are probably far higher). This brings the social and economic burden for this population to over £3.6billion in the UK, according to the report.

More details: go to www.cps.org.uk.

Kathy Gyngell is chair of the Prisons and Addictions Policy Forum at the Centre for Policy Studies. She is the author of The Phoney War on Drugs (2009). She also chaired and authored the Addictions reports of the Social Justice Policy Review for the Conservative Party, published in Breakdown Britain in December 2006 and Breakthrough Britain in July 2007.