The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7245 p546-547
19 April 2003

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  New Charter
  Community pharmacy
  Pharmacist prescribing
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  Drug misuse services
  Homoeopathy
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  NPSA project
  Tuberculosis
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Letters to the Editor

Drug misuse services

Give addicts what they want

From Mr S. P. E. Heppell

Like Brian Price (PJ, 29 March, p438), I have witnessed and experienced the consequences of drug addiction, and believe it is time attitudes changed towards drug users. After so many years, it has been shown that drug laws have not achieved what it was hoped they would do, and have instead caused drug use to spiral into a dangerous and uncontrollable level.

With this evident history behind us, surely it is time we took heed and realised that drug laws do not work, have never worked and will not work until addicts are given the drugs that they choose to use.

Simon Heppell
Preregistration Trainee
Royal Free Hospital, London NW3

Condoning a breach of the law is not right conduct

From Mr D. F. Brint, MRPharmS

I refer to your report on needle and syringe exchange services and supply of citric acid sachets to drug abusers in Scotland (PJ, 29 March, p430). I assume that these articles are associated with the illegal possession and abuse of drugs which Parliament, in its wisdom, said may only lawfully be supplied on the order of a registered medical practitioner.

Aiding, abetting and condoning a breach of the law is not usually accepted as right conduct. I have read of pharmacists finding themselves in hot water for having, out of charity, given methadone an hour before the due time or to a non-registered messenger. And so it should be. The law is the law.

I am heartened that only 7 per cent of pharmacies in Glasgow participate in a scheme that does nothing for the public good and semi-legitimises an illegal form of self-harm.

These schemes were set up, together with methadone supply through pharmacies, because this is the cheapest way to pretend to deal with a social problem — a problem which would more effectively be dealt with by inpatient care, not on the streets with the connivance of professionals who should have a more defined view of their ethical responsibilities.

I do not expect that this note will have any effect on those who make policy in Government, but I do hope for a twinge of doubt each time a pharmacist hands out a packet of syringes or dispenses a bottle of methadone mixture — until, of course, Class A drugs can be openly bought and sold and we should no longer have to argue with our consciences.

Dennis Brint
Bristol

Only the state should supply drugs

From Mr D. P. O’Sullivan, MRPharmS

I would concur with Brian Price (PJ, 29 March, p438). The state (or its agents) should be the only legitimate supplier of any drug. It should not make philosophical distinctions between the intended use of the drug. This would allow the safe and hygienic supply of drugs (at National Health Service prices) and would be altogether more cost-effective than current methods of control. Severe penalties should remain for illegal supply, especially to minors.

However, until spinal transplants become a practical reality, it is unlikely that the inhabitants of the political and moral high ground will stop wasting the health and wealth of our nations in a rerun of prohibition.

Declan O'Sullivan
Dublin, Ireland

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