The Evening Star today says that Therese Coffey MP has called for less NHS money to be spent helping prison ers get off hard drugs and instead used to treat law abiding citizens. I thought I was going to disagree with her (probably because of the way the Evening Star told the story) until I got the gist of what she was saying.
“The cash is spent on various treat ments to help prisoners end their dependency, including substance sub stitutes such as methadone, which is used to replace heroin.
Dr Coffey said: “I’m not saying that ” we shouldn’t be treating prisoners -we have to get them off drugs- how ever I would hope we could find a cheaper way to do it and use the money saved elsewhere.”
When Heroin addicts are treated with methadone they often end up being addicted to methadone as well. Therefore methadone is an expensive form of treatment.
