Europe: British Prisons Install Methadone Vending Machines

I know this doesn't directly affect us here in the United States, but I thought it was interesting information all the same. When are they going to open their eyes here and see that the less stringent laws regarding access to methadone in other countries need to be implemented here??

Europe: British Prisons Install Methadone Vending Machines

from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #595, 7/24/09

In a bid to promote opiate maintenance therapy behind bars, the British government has begun installing methadone vending machines in the country's prisons. Justice Minister Phil Hope told parliament last week that 57 vending machines have been installed so far.

The machines allow prisoners to receive an individualized dose of methadone by giving a fingerprint or an iris scan. The machines are paid for by the Department of Health and will cost about $6.5 million dollars, about 10% of the department's prison drug treatment budget. The target is to have the machines in half of Britain's 140 prisons.

According to the latest available prison population statistics, in 2007, nearly 6,400 of Britain's 81,000 prisoners were there on drug charges, with slightly more than half of them charged with simple drug possession or possession with intent to distribute. The official statistics provide no breakdown of which drugs were involved.

"Methadone dispensers are a safe and secure method for providing a prescribed treatment," said a health department spokesman. "They can only be accessed by the person who has been clinically assessed as needing methadone and that person is recognized by a biometric marker, such as their iris."

Providing methadone to addicted prisoners allows them to manage their habits without resorting to illicit heroin supplies within the prisons. But the opposition Conservatives were quick to try to score political points, claiming that the Labor government would rather "manage offenders' addiction" than end it.

"The public will be shocked that Ministers are spending more on methadone vending machines than the entire budget for abstinence based treatments," said Dominic Grieve, the Conservative shadow justice secretary. "Getting prisoners clean of drugs is one of the keys to getting them to go straight. We need to get prisoners off all drug addiction -- not substitute one dependency for another. The government's approach of trying to 'manage' addiction is an admission of failure."

The Conservatives are hammering away at Labor any way they can as they prepare for national elections sometime in the coming months. Attacking enlightened approaches to inmate drug addiction is just another arrow in their "tough on crime" quiver.

Drug War Chronicle - world’s leading drug policy newsletter

that is the neatest thing i have heard of. i hear all the time about people on methadone getting arrested & not having their meds. they get sick & go thru horrible withdrawls & our prison system could care less. even if that means the person could have seizures & die. i think this is very enlightened of the british prison system. the one thing i hear the most from people in clinics is - don't get arrested, you won't get your methadone. that is just plain scary. our government should put something like this in effect for jails so that people addicted to opiates or heroin can at least begin some type of treatment, cold turkey withdrawl could kill them. shouldn't people in government or in charge of jails be worried about that?
cat