Many drug addicts given more drugs to help them quit
Rushda:
October 18th, 2007
A new case which has recently provoked much controversy is a government treatment plan carried out by many clinics to use drugs to reward those addicts who abstain from drugs. Many heroin and cocaine addicts who produce clean urine samples at regular tests are receiving extra doses of methadone (a heroin substitute) or anti-depressants just for being good.
It is easy to see why the practice has been criticised - never before have drugs ever been used as an incentive to get off drugs and healthy. The government scheme costs The National Treatment Agency £500m a year and they admit that such a practice, if it exists, is unethical.
Health Minister Dawn Primarolo is worried about the surprising number of clinics which offer such reward schemes, called “contingency management.” Indeed around one-third of the 200 centres surveyed use such methods. As Primarolo says:
“It is unacceptable, unethical, it should not happen that prescription drugs and doses are used, or suggested that they should be used, as either incentives or withheld as sanctions as part of a treatment programme.”
Furthermore, in many centres the patient themselves could choose the type of substitute they would like to receive, and if they so desire they can even get a cash reward instead.
It is certainly difficult to know how unethical such a practice really is. On the one hand, offering treatment which isn’t the result of “clinical need” seems wrong and potentially abusable and hence not serving the best interests of the patient. On the other hand, however, supposing this really is helping a drug addict by giving them a reason to stay off the drugs, then surely that could actually benefit the patient more.