Pubdate: Mon, 06 Mar 2006 Source: Herald, The (UK) Copyright: 2006 The Herald Contact: http://www.theherald.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/189 Author: Martyn McLaughlin Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) DRUGS: THE CHILD VICTIMS News Focus He was described by one neighbour as the "lovely wee boy with an angelic face" whose short life came to an end less than a fortnight after celebrating his second birthday. When Lisa Dodds found the lifeless body of Derek Alexander Doran in his bed, she reacted not as a registered drug addict, but a frightened mother. After she ran to a neighbour's house to raise the alarm, the child was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh, but it was too late. The toddler, understood to have mistaken methadone for a soft drink, was dead on arrival. The full circumstances behind Derek's death have yet to emerge, and it is unclear if police will be able to establish how he opened the secure lid of the medication bottle. Yet the details already known hold a grim familiarity. It has been estimated that 60,000 Scottish children are affected by the drug abuse of their parents, and the problem is getting worse. The number of babies born to drug-addicted mothers rose over the four years from 1998/99 to 2002/03 from 199 to 334 - an increase of almost 68%. Jack McConnell, first minister, has said the needs of addicts' children must come first. Speaking last month after it was revealed that an 11-year-old girl from Glasgow had used heroin, he said the Scottish Executive was working towards improved legislation which would make it a duty in law for professionals to share the information "necessary to protect our children". The government's role, he added by way of a caveat, is not the sole solution. Families, friends and neighbours must play their part. In this latest tragedy, policy regarding the prescription of methadone has emerged as a key issue, one which will again come under intense political scrutiny alongside child protection laws and social work reform. In 1999/2000, some 144,368,364ml of the mixture were dispensed. Just four years later, that figure had more than doubled to 294,904,358ml - at a cost to the NHS of more than UKP11.6m. It is estimated that in 2004, 19,227 Scots took methadone, around a third of the nation's opiate users. The current system of dispensing, argue addiction experts, fails to supervise users and their families. It remains, though, merely one component of a complex, expensive and long-term set of solutions. Annabel Goldie, a stern critic of methadone prescription, said: "Drug and methadone dependency have reached epidemic proportions with our social services left to pick up the pieces of government policy that lacks the will to tackle the issue head-on." Education governing drug misuse, she added, has been a disaster, and should be replaced with a zero-tolerance stance complemented by "properly resourced rehabilitation". Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the centre for drugs misuse research at Glasgow University, accused many drugs treatment services of reticence in assessing users and their families. He said: "These anxieties are costing our children dear. One the one hand, we say the needs of children are paramount [yet] some services are reluctant to ask about them. "The current systems in place are inadequate . . . where an addict is on methadone they need to be very closely supervised, and so do their families. These households can go from relative stability to relative chaos within a couple of hours depending on chemical intake. Methadone must be used for a clear set of aims - to help users move towards becoming drug-free. There are treatment services which do not realise this." While some patients procure doses on a daily basis from one of more than 800 community pharmacies in Scotland, others are given weekly amounts as part of a "take-home" prescription. Lothian and Borders Police declined to comment on how Derek's parents received theirs. Susan Dean, spokeswoman for the Scottish Drugs Forum, an umbrella group for anti-drug charities, police and treatment providers, urged investigations into Derek's death to centre on whether his parents' prescriptions were properly assessed. But she rejected the notion that the use of the liquid heroin substitute itself was to blame. She said: "It is completely missing the point to condemn the use of methadone in this instance. It is, and can only ever be, part of a comprehensive package of solutions. "The issue under scrutiny should not be methadone, but how well the current system of support allows it to work. "It provides the chemical help - but only works if people are offered psychological and social assistance as well." The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, the regulatory and professional body for pharmacists, is against 100% supervision of methadone administration, warning of creating a "secondary dependence". It has nevertheless admitted to levels of inconsistency in how Scottish health boards administer dispensing, with "variable" arrangements across the country. Wasted Lives Scott Saunders - A 33-month-old from Rutherglen, he died in 2000 after being beaten, starved and locked in an unheated room while his mother, Cheryl Hanson, and her boyfriend, Mark Connelly, fed their heroin habit. In just over five weeks, he had been transformed from a well-nourished child into a living skeleton. Caleb Ness - The 11-week-old from Edinburgh spent the first three weeks of his life in 2001 withdrawing from drugs taken by his mother, Shirley Malcolm, during her pregnancy. While his mother was at a local chemist obtaining methadone, Caleb's father, Alexander, shook him violently until he died. Danielle Reid - The five-year-old from Inverness died from massive head injuries after being beaten by her mother's lover, Lee Gaytor, a heroin addict. When her mother, Tracy Reid, discovered what had happened, she helped her lover stuff her daughter's body in a case, weigh it with bricks and dump it in the Caledonian Canal. - --- MAP posted-by: Tom