Scottish methadone service to be reviewed
Unsupervised methadone consumption has raised child protection issues |
Scotland's methadone service is to be reviewed following the death at the end of last year of a toddler who drank methadone mixture.
Scottish Executive First Minister Jack McConnell asked the Scottish ministers
for justice, education and health to report on current drug rehabilitation
policies at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, as The Journal went to press.
The meeting decided to order officials to look closely at the operation
of the methadone programme.
Mr McConnell said: “I am not yet convinced that our policy on rehabilitation
is clear enough or that the implementation and service provision across
Scotland is consistent enough. I want us to review the position in relation
to the prescription of methadone … taken unsupervised. I also want
us to be clear that, when people are on methadone programmes or managed
medication programmes, those programmes are directed towards an end result.”
Following the Cabinet meeting, a spokesman said: “The ministers
for health and justice agreed that their officials would jointly review
current guidelines and good practice in relation to methadone prescribing
and administration.” He added that the ministers noted that current
guidelines took little account of child protection issues.
Stuart Notman, an Aberdeen community pharmacist who supplies
methadone to 140 patients, believes that politicians need to adopt a holistic approach
to treating addiction, minimising harm and preventing crime.
He said: “This should be more about crime prevention and harm minimisation
than treatment. There are a host of social and environmental problems
that go hand in hand. It’s difficult to get someone off drugs if
that’s all the help they’re being offered.” |
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