Our Views

I just read a remarkable news item about heroin addicts in England receiving rewards when they test clean for crack and cocaine. The addict, who now has a methadone addiction instead of a heroin addiction, turns up at the methadone clinic for a drug test and if he passes his urine test for cocaine and crack, can get one of several rewards - extra methadone, shopping coupons, anti-depressants and, if they’re lucky, access to a drug detox program.

I don’t know what outrages me about this more: the fact that they went to a methadone treatment clinic to get off heroin and were given another addictive drug, methadone, instead; the fact that getting extra methadone as a reward digs them further into the hole they’re already in; the fact that their given other dangerous drugs – antidepressants – as a reward for good behavior; or the fact that drug detox is withheld from them in the first place.

What kind of game is this? Here’s how I see it – heroin addict goes to clinic to get off heroin, instead of being given the chance to do that through drug detox and rehab his addiction is intentionally prolonged by being given a different additive drug, then he’s told that if he can stop himself from taking drugs other than the new addictive drug he’s been given, he may be allowed to get off drugs. Or, he may be put on another dangerous drug – an antidepressant.

Seems like the best these methadone clinics have to offer someone who comes to them to get off heroin is addiction to methadone and discount coupons for some new clothes. What a deal.

I’ve heard some pretty crazy ideas in my time, but I think this one takes the cake. What’s the icing? England spends $1 billion on methadone clinics when the money could be invested in drug detox and rehab centers that could actually get heroin addicts off drugs.