http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/401/scotland.shtml

A leading Scottish National Party (SNP) drug authority is preparing the case for his party to become the first mainstream political party in the United Kingdom to call for the prescription of heroin to addicts, the London Sunday Times reported. Brian Adam, co-covener of the Scottish parliament's committee on drug and alcohol use, said the use of methadone is creating a generation of zombies who never get off opiates.

According to the Scottish Executive, as the executive branch of the Scottish government is known, there are some 20,000 people receiving government-supplied methadone in Scotland. The announcement of those figures last week provoked attacks on the government by the Tories and doubtless influenced the timing of Adam's remarks to the Times. Tory spokesmen said the numbers showed "the true extent of Scotland's drug crisis" and complained about junkies getting their "daily fix" of methadone in perpetuity at government expense.

But the Scottish Executive responded tartly. "It is time we ended the unhelpful obsession in trying to prove whether abstinence or harm reduction strategies are best," said a spokesman. "The most effective treatment will always depend on the circumstances of the individual addict; there is no 'one size fits all' solution."

The Executive's position suggests an openness to ideas like prescription heroin, and the SNP leadership told the Times it has an open mind on the issue. The SNP's Adam is prepared to put both to the test. A biochemist and toxicologist, he said the status quo was failing thousand of Scots addicts. "Ministers should consider following the example of other countries and look at taking the radical step of prescribing heroin to addicts so that they can be gradually weaned off it and eventually beat their addiction," he said.

"We need to look at the alternative methods such as treatment with heroin itself. The international evidence from Switzerland and the Netherlands suggests that heroin is more effective in getting people weaned off their addiction than methadone."

In response to Adam's suggestion, the SNP said it would consider it. "Heroin addiction is a serious problem in Scotland and the solutions that have worked overseas should be examined in a Scottish context," a spokesman told the Times.

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