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News items on 'Methadone'
Cost of methadone prescriptions up by 84 per cent in five years
(The Scotsman 05/07/2009)
THE cost of prescribing methadone to drug addicts has soared by 84 per cent over the last five years, it has emerged. According to the Scottish Government's official statistics, the cost of providing the heroine substitute to addicts has risen from £9,049,792 in 2003-4 to £16,637,636 in 2008-09. The revelation led to Scottish Conservative calls for the SNP Government to wean addicts off methadone by ensuring that it is no longer the treatment of "first resort".
Illicit drugs 'modify placenta'
(BBC 11/06/2009)
Health professionals must ensure pregnant women taking the heroin substitute methadone avoid any illicit drugs, a Swiss study suggests. The combination appears to increase the toxins transferred to the foetus. Researchers found combining methadone with heroin or cocaine made the placenta - which separates the blood of mother and child - much more permeable. Writing in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology, they said women should be carefully monitored.
Addict on methadone for 18 years
(BBC 02/06/2009)
Questions have been asked about Scotland's methadone policy after a Perth man admitted taking the substance for 18 years, while still on heroin. Martin Ramsay, 34, was put on methadone when he was 16 to encourage him to give up heroin. His situation was revealed when he appeared in court to admit stealing five boxes of perfume. The Scottish Government said methadone did not work in all cases but had allowed many people to give up heroin.
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Cut methadone use or you won't turn tide of drug addiction, ministers are warned
(The Scotsman 20/01/2009)
THE Scottish Government's strategy for tackling the scourge of drugs will fail unless tough national targets to reduce the use of methadone are introduced, ministers have been warned. The SNP has pledged a sea change in treatment services, away from "managing" drug misuse to helping addicts become clean, to reduce the burden borne by society as a whole.
The children failed by social services
(Telegraph 10/01/2009)
Trae-Bleu Layne had just turned three when she died from an overdose of methadone, the heroin substitute, supplied to her mother. Just three weeks before she died, social workers had been close to saving the little girl when they held a meeting about taking her into care - but the decision was made to give her mother "another chance".
Methadone 'fails to reduce heroin use or cut crime'
(The Scotsman 14/12/2008)
Prof Neil McKeganey from Glasgow Uni Centre for Drug Misuse Research, was involved in research that found that people on methadone [used as part of treatment] still take heroin and still commit crimes to pay for their habit. McKeganey said this "raises the question about the opportunities for reducing the size of Scotland's methadone programme... with some 22,000 addicts on methadone".
Inside health: Death toll casts new doubts on methadone
(The Scotsman 20/08/2008)
SCOTLAND'S record on drug-related deaths does not paint a pretty picture.
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