Whitehall's "Spinball" Drug of Choice!

There were two very interesting, yet contradictory, stories in the press this weekend regarding Methadone:

The Scottish press, in the form of Scotland on Sunday and The Scotsman, ran a story on Professor Neil McKeganey's research (from Glasgow University) which shows that only 3.4 percent of drug users who were prescribed Methadone were “drug-free” after 3 years as opposed to 29 percent of those who went into residential treatment.

Other differences were just as startling:

Of those who received Methadone:

• 29 percent were in employment or education.
• 47 percent said that they “felt better”.
• 91 percent admitted to committing crimes.

Of those who took the abstinence route:

• 59 percent were in employment or education.
• 79 percent said that they “felt better”.
• 13 percent admitted to committing crimes.

Professor McKeganey's research seemingly shows that Methadone “treatment” is only marginally better than no treatment at all.

There are apparently around 20,000 addicts receiving Methadone in Scotland.

Meanwhile in England the Sunday Mirror reported that 84,583 people were in treatment for Heroin addiction (in England). Caroline Flint MP (now the Health Minister, previously the Drugs Minister) reported that the figure had almost doubled over the past 2 years and that this was a sign that the government's drug strategy was a success.

It also reported “experts” as claiming that the true number of Heroin addicts could be 120,000 because many users “weren't receiving medical help” . We reckon that the real figure is likely to be at least double this – say 250,000?

Um........ We also note that the report talks about “medical help” - effectively prescribed Methadone. The article then went on to report that drug related crime had fallen by 16 percent from April 2004 to March 2006. It then trots out the old statement that “for every £1 spent on treatment £9.50 is saved in crime and health costs”.

Am I the only one to sense a contradiction here?

Either Scottish Addicts are very different from English ones (They are not – I have worked with both) or Scottish professionals are less competent than their English counterparts ( again we know that they are not) or something is wrong with the figures! Especially so when Caroline Flint's figures don't even seem to relly match up with those from the National Treatment Agency which last month reported 181,000 people in treatment for drug use! ( If 84,000 are Heroin addicts what are the other 97,000 doing?)

Could it actually be that someone, somewhere – perhaps not a million miles away from Central London – is massaging the figures?

If I have to chose between the 2 stories I would have to say that in my experience Professor McKeganey is the one that we should be believing! But Scotland and Glasgow are a very, very long way from Whitehall (unlike Baghdad and Kabul) so we very much doubt that anyone will take any notice whatsoever of this research.

"Evidence based Research" only counts when it says what they want to hear!