Recovering heroin addicts feel methadone treatment is being used to "punish" and "control" them, a report on State drug treatment programmes has found.
The report, Methadone: What's the Story, was published yesterday by UISCE, the Union for Improved Services, Communication and Education, a platform for current and former drug users, as well as professionals working with them.
The report looks at drug treatment clients' perceptions of current treatment programmes and in particular of methadone, the most widely used synthetic opiate substitute for recovering heroin addicts. Almost 7,000 people in the Dublin region are being treated with methadone.
Mr Tommy Larkin, co-ordinator of UISCE, said the impetus for the report grew from the many complaints they had been getting about methadone.
Some 93 per cent of respondents to UISCE said methadone was not as effective in staving off cravings as Physeptone, which was replaced in 1998. The report says many addicts are "self medicating to ease the physical discomforts of early withdrawals" leading to further poly-addictions. Benzodiazepam and alcohol were used to 'top-up' their methadone.
A majority of drug users surveyed "felt they were treated very badly by professionals within the drug services".
"Whether these problems are real or perceived, it is very clear that the drug treatment services have serious issues to consider."
Respondents complained of receiving medical sanctions for "minor infringements of their drug treatment". Methadone doses were reduced arbitrarily to 'punish' clients for "reasons including unsubstantiated allegations, lateness, loitering" or on suspicion of drug dealing.
"This use of methadone reduction has to stop," said Mr Larkin. "It is inhuman. You can't use medication to control people. You wouldn't reduce someone's insulin if they ate a chocolate bar." He said users felt they couldn't complain because if they did their doses would be reduced. The report calls for means of establishing an individual's drug consumption other than by urine analysis, such as saliva or hair analysis. Urinalysis is a frequent feature of treatment to ensure clients are not using other drugs. Many service users find this "embarrassing and humiliating".
