FAILURE TO HELP DRUG ADDICTS IS COSTING BRITAIN UKP3.6BN A YEAR

Residential Rehab Units Are In 'Near-Terminal Crisis', Says Scathing
Think-Tank Report

Failure to help hundreds of thousands of addicts get free of drugs is
costing Britain UKP3.6bn a year in welfare and prescriptions for
methadone, according to a report released today.

The Centre for Policy Studies think-tank accuses David Cameron of
failing to deliver on his pledge to help people get off drugs.

The report, Breaking the Habit: Why the State Should Stop Dealing Drugs
and Start Doing Rehab, cites comments made by the Prime Minister late
last year, when he described methadone as "a government-authorised form
of opium".

Mr Cameron pledged to provide more residential treatment programmes
and added: "The way you get drug addicts clean is by getting them off
drugs altogether, challenging their addiction rather than just
replacing one opiate with another."

Yet while the heroin substitute remains a common treatment for
addicts, the number of referrals to rehabilitation units has fallen to
an all-time low of 3,914. There are only 1,872 beds now available at
"affordable" levels of around UKP500-UKP600 per week, with none on the
NHS, and the sector is "in near-terminal crisis", according to the
report.

Its author, Kathy Gyngell, said: "By sponsoring addiction, drug
treatment has entrenched a costly dual dependency -- on drugs and on
welfare."

Three-quarters of those in treatment programmes are on methadone,
amounting to 150,000 people. Many people spend years on the drug,
which now accounts for a quarter of all drugs poisoning deaths, says
the report from the right-wing think-tank.

The latest figures on prison drug tests, obtained by The Independent
on Sunday, reveal 3,500 inmates tested positive for prescribed and
illicit methadone -- a 55-fold increase over the previous five years.

Methadone became a recommended treatment for heroin addicts in the
late 1980s, when the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs declared
that the spread of HIV/Aids was a bigger threat to the public than
drug misuse. Prescribing methadone -- a drug that stops heroin
addicts from experiencing the pain of withdrawal -- and providing
clean needles for addicts were part of a "harm reduction" response to
drug addiction that continued under New Labour.

The cost to the state of maintaining addicts on methadone has doubled
since 2002-03 to UKP730m a year. Drug users are estimated to receive
UKP1.7bn in benefits a year, while the welfare costs of looking after
the children of drug addicts are estimated at a further UKP1.2bn a year.

The report comes just weeks after British celebrities urged Mr Cameron
to decriminalise drug possession, and the Global Commission on Drug
Policy said that the war on drugs had failed and that it was time for
"fundamental reforms" in drug policies.

A Department of Health spokesperson said the Government's drugs
strategy, which includes the use of "talking therapies", detox and
drug-based treatments is "fundamentally different from those that have
gone before".

He added: "Instead of focusing on reducing the harms caused by drug
misuse, our approach will be to go much further and offer every
support for people to choose recovery as an achievable way out of
dependence."

"There is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution," said Martin Barnes, chief
executive of DrugScope. "Access to a range of services and support is
vital to supporting recovery, regardless of the types of treatment
provided."