Methadone saves lives- Its official!

MrMatisse

Who knew?

http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/methadone-080710

Methadone treatment improves long-term survival of drug users and reduces mortality, a study has shown.

rovert

Is this thread worthy?

Someone post something funny, sarcastic or offensive before it's too late.

Gurgle

Really-Stressed wrote: »

Who knew?

http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/methadone-080710

Methadone treatment improves long-term survival of drug users and reduces mortality, a study has shown.

Its not so much a 'who knew', as an update on a long term study.

Well worth the effort of publishing a report every few years to remind the NHS that it remains the best treatment plan available.

This being AH, roll on the smart-arses...

**Timbuk2**

Harms more than it helps, in my opinion.

snollup

makes ****e of your teeth tho.

Einhard

Really-Stressed wrote: »

Who knew?

http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/methadone-080710

Methadone treatment improves long-term survival of drug users and reduces mortality, a study has shown.

Eh, isn't this common knowledge though? Isn't that the reason it's used as a heroin substitute in the first place?

Dravokivich

Fúcking Meth...

purpur1

So if we remove Methadone then junkies will start to die?
:rolleyes:

Nodin

Deleted User wrote: »

Someone post something funny, sarcastic or offensive before it's too late.

The only thing that comes to mind is the word "Gee" but I can't seem to work it into a sentence. Maybe later.

Bottle_of_Smoke

You think Methadone is the recently banned drug Mephedrone don't you?

easyeason3

Methadone for all!

JONJO THE MISER

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

You think Methadone is the recently banned drug Mephedrone don't you?

MrReal

Methadone is a waste of Tax payers money, they should give them only 50mils daily no takeaways that can be sold.
for those who say what about the people who have jobs they cant go every day set up an late chemist.
50mils no more
close all the community clinics
GP only - No urines
No CE schemas
and 25euro per week for the methadone taken out of your dole.
the world is gone mad that we have to pay for someone to keep up their drug habit we dont give out free smokes or alcohol

im invisible

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

You think Methadone is the recently banned drug Mephedrone don't you?

thread saved


Research carried out by the university of Edinburgh... :pac:

starviewadams

Yeah,50mls a day,even if somebody has a severe addiction and could die from withdrawals,fúck them sure,they're lucky to be getting anything.

CreepingDeath

Poison the methadone and solve the drug problem from the ground up.

latenia

I'm guessing there are secondary reasons for this rather than just taking a different drug such as better access to healthcare, a purer and more regular supply, a more stable environment to keep a home and job etc. Giving them free heroin would produce much the same effect and would end up a lot cheaper for the taxpayer as we could negotiate directly with the Taliban rather than "big pharma."

EL_Loco

isn't there a program in Holland where they give addicts pure heroin to help them come off it? I saw a woman being interviewed at work, saying she was coming off heroin, she had a phial of it, and clean syringes. Popped off to the jacks for a hit, came back and carried on working. Wasn't a off your head hit, more a steady the withdrawl. She seemed perfectly respectable. Turned alot of stereotypes I had on their head let me tell ya.

raveni

Not doing drugs in the first place also saves lives:rolleyes:

Bottle_of_Smoke

EL_Loco wrote: »

isn't there a program in Holland where they give addicts pure heroin to help them come off it? I saw a woman being interviewed at work, saying she was coming off heroin, she had a phial of it, and clean syringes. Popped off to the jacks for a hit, came back and carried on working. Wasn't a off your head hit, more a steady the withdrawl. She seemed perfectly respectable. Turned alot of stereotypes I had on their head let me tell ya.

Also possible in Britain. I think if methadone doesn't help they can be referred for medical grade heroin (diamorphine)

TheZohanS

raveni wrote: »

Not doing drugs in the first place also saves lives:rolleyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rmUZQrvF5o

karma_

I was reading this article recently, it's relevant. Basically, a very successful harm reduction program in Widnes, which was forced to shut after pressure from the US government.

http://www.runcornandwidnesweeklynews.co.uk/runcorn-widnes-news/runcorn-widnes-local-news/2010/08/19/dr-john-marks-talks-about-the-controversial-harm-reduction-drug-treatment-programme-in-widnes-55368-27086372/

ASK most people, even those working in the field of drug treatment, and chances are they have never even heard of it.
But the Chapel Street Clinic in Widnes is known in certain circles from Australia to Canada.
Pioneering but controversial, the clinic helped to form the blueprint of entire nations’ drug policies, has been the subject of fierce international disputes, extensive educational studies, law enforcement seminars, and even an alleged trans-Atlantic furore involving the American Government and Margaret Thatcher which may have changed the course of Britain’s drug war forever.
It is known around the world for one reason and one reason only, the Chapel Street Clinic used to give away drugs – not methadone or conventional pharmaceuticals, but legally-prescribed heroin and crack cocaine.

Up until the mid-1990s, the clinic was run by consultant psychiatrist Dr John Marks, who advocated a form of treating drug addicts which involved giving them the narcotics they craved.
The theory of ‘harm reduction’ held that while drug-users were kept away from the underworld and from the constant search for money and a ‘fix’, they could live more normal lives – limiting the damage they could do to themselves and society.

The theory was based on a model used in the UK from the 1920s until the 1960s which became known as the ‘British system’ and the clinic saw remarkable successes.

Between July 1988 and January 1990, the then-Cheshire Drug Squad began tracking the criminal records of 112 addicts who entered the drug maintenance program.

It recorded a 93% drop in theft, burglary, and property crimes.
HIV infection rate among injecting drug users was zero, and the incidence of death among addicts – normally 15% a year - was also zero.
One side-effect which Dr Marks did not expect though, was a drop in new users.

The police found that drug dealers simply stayed away from Halton because they knew the local addicts no longer needed their services.
Word of the clinic’s work quickly spread around the globe, attracting foreign journalists and doctors to Widnes.

It became the subject of a United Nations study and inspired a more liberal approach to drug-treatment in several European countries..
Dr Marks – now the clinical director of psychiatry at Gisborne Hospital in New Zealand, told the Weekly News: “The clinic gained the attention of Chief Inspector Bing Spear of the Home Office Drugs Branch in the mid-1980s and he became an enthusiastic supporter.
“From that beginning, the harm reduction policy was formulated and became an NHS model of good practice.
“Similar clinics were rolled out throughout the country and there was a lot of foreign interest.
“Switzerland and Germany modelled their services explicitly on it and eventually there came American attention.”
It was with the visit of US current affairs programme 60 Minutes in 1990 that America’s Republican administration became aware of the little Widnes clinic, and – Dr Marks alleges – then put pressure on the British Government to close it down for ideological reasons.
He said: “After it aired I got a sudden phone call from Bing who said: ‘Why didn’t you let us know about 60 Minutes?’.

“I replied honestly that I’d forgotten all about them among the plethora of other visitors, had no idea that their report had been broadcast nor that the Home Office would be interested in TV programmes about clinics.
“Bing replied ‘That’s a pity. We’re getting real heat from our embassy in Washington and Maggie’s got her knickers in a twist over the whole issue’.
“In short order the Halton Health District was dissolved, Bing Spear had resigned and was replaced by a man called Alan MacFarlane – who later described me as ‘dangerous’.”
Health chiefs at the time said the decision to scrap the programme was due to the prohibitive cost of heroin, citing methadone as a cheaper alternative.
Dr Marks though remains adamant, he said: “It was in deference to American sensibilities that Margaret Thatcher emasculated the whole harm-reduction programme.”

The policy at the clinic ran from 1984-1995 and since its end Halton’s addicts have undergone conventional treatment, usually involving the heroin substitute methadone.
But 15 years later the name Chapel Street is being talked about once again. With funding for police and prison places under threat and with more liberal voices now calling for reform, the traditional approach to drugs is being re-evaluated.
Ewan Hoyle, founder of the national group Liberal Democrats for Drug Policy Reform, said: “I came across the Chapel Street story early in my investigation of drug policy and it served as a stark demonstration of how both addicts and communities can benefit enormously from heroin dependency being treated with compassion.

“I hope mine and my colleagues’ current pleas to the coalition Government to reinstate heroin maintenance will not fall on deaf ears.”
Clinics in Sydney and Vancouver currently follow the Chapel Street model, and in 2009 the German parliament passed a law allowing heroin prescription as a standard treatment for addicts, with two Danish cities set to roll out a similar programme this year.

Last year 100 addicts in London, Brighton and Darlington took part in trials using prescription heroin which were hailed a success.
And on Tuesday, Sir Ian Gilmore, outgoing president of the Royal College of Physicians, called on drug use to be treated as a health problem and not a criminal one.

However, Dr Marks is unsure whether the UK Government will adopt such an approach on a wider scale.
He said: “I think the (coalition) regime may be more open-minded than New Labour – which is not difficult – but drug policy organisations like Transform are more likely to produce some movement.”

EL_Loco

raveni wrote: »

Not doing drugs in the first place also saves lives:rolleyes:

sure people mess themselves up with all sorts of legal things too, still a cost on the tax payer to treat them, may aswell accept the fact and find solutions.

Richard Hillman

MrReal wrote: »

Methadone is a waste of Tax payers money, they should give them only 50mils daily no takeaways that can be sold.
for those who say what about the people who have jobs they cant go every day set up an late chemist.
50mils no more
close all the community clinics
GP only - No urines
No CE schemas
and 25euro per week for the methadone taken out of your dole.
the world is gone mad that we have to pay for someone to keep up their drug habit we dont give out free smokes or alcohol

I would agree with a lot of what you are saying but if they went to the GP it would cost the state €60 a pop

RichieC

MrMatisse wrote: »

Who knew?

http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/all-news/methadone-080710

Methadone treatment improves long-term survival of drug users and reduces mortality, a study has shown.

wrongs lives. you remember you're on boards right?

RichieC

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I would agree with a lot of what you are saying but if they went to the GP it would cost the state €60 a pop

wouldnt be sure the docs actually charge the government full whack. I'd imagine they have bulk agreements.

ArtyM

But what about Methedtwo and Methedthree? I think they are worthy of further study.

mattjack

MrReal wrote: »

Methadone is a waste of Tax payers money, they should give them only 50mils daily no takeaways that can be sold.
for those who say what about the people who have jobs they cant go every day set up an late chemist.
50mils no more
close all the community clinics
GP only - No urines
No CE schemas
and 25euro per week for the methadone taken out of your dole.
the world is gone mad that we have to pay for someone to keep up their drug habit we dont give out free smokes or alcohol

I always thought before takeaways were agreed upon an element of trust had to be built up using counselling , urines etc in clinics.
50mls / 70 mls in the normal allowance right ?
GPs would love that ...their surgeries full of ppl with addiction issues.
What have CE schemes got to do with methadone dependency ? to get on to a CE scheme nowadays you are interviewed and vetted by AGS and nearly every single CE provides ppl to either work with charities or in the community and I really cant see anybody dependent on methadone bearing in mind their previous addictions being employed on a CE scheme...
Close all community clinics ? and treat addicts where ?

MagicSean

TheZohan wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rmUZQrvF5o

Doesn't really take hindsight to know that drugs are bad.

mattjack

Seanbeag1 wrote: »

Doesn't really take hindsight to know that drugs are bad.

you,re right Sean....

Spunge

hurr durr kill all junkies

now gimme a pint of vodka, 200 john player and a crate of xanax.

Tio Tom

Methadone is important in helping people steer clear of sharing needles, but the doctors don't tell their patients that they will be on it for more than ten years, and when people want to come off it, there is not enough support. In www.<snip>.ie we are trying to help people get off methadone and give them a second chance at education. We have a new forum on methadone and recovery if you would like to join the chat there at www.addictionrecovery.<snip>.com

Chuck Stone

MagicSean wrote: »

Doesn't really take hindsight to know that drugs are bad.

Drugs aren't bad. Drug abuse is bad. Punishing people for taking drugs is bad.

biko

PM TT if you need the info they brought back the thread for.