Pubdate: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 Source: Herald, The (UK) Copyright: 2007 The Herald Contact: http://www.theherald.co.uk/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/189 Author: Neil McKeganey Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Note: Neil McKeganey is Professor of Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University IT IS TIME TO REVISE OUR TREATMENT METHODS OR THINGS WILL GET WORSE To say the latest drug death figures released by the Registrar General are a disappointment is an understatement bordering on the absurd. Reducing drug-related deaths has been a target of government policy for the last 10 years - with record numbers of users in treatment and records amounts being spent. The hundreds of millions spent on treatment in Scotland should have delivered a marked reduction in the number of deaths. Instead, we are seeing the opposite: an increase in overall addict deaths and a worrying rise in the number of deaths associated with methadone, our number one addict treatment in Scotland. If there are any lessons to be learned in these latest figures, it is that we will probably not see a sustained reduction in addict deaths in Scotland until there is a marked reduction in the number of drug addicts. For the last 10 or so years, we have entertained the notion treatment services can focus on reducing the harm of continued drug use and deliver positive benefits for users, their families and the wider community. That is now looking like an echoingly hollow belief, with record numbers of drug users dying prematurely. If we are going to be successful, we need treatment services that are successful not simply at stabilising addicts but in getting them off drugs. We are also going to need effective drug prevention initiatives. Throwing money at the problem while not evaluating the success of our efforts is little more than an expensive folly. Neil McKeganey is Professor of Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman