Leader: Drug deaths raise questions about methadone treatment

IT WOULD be churlish not to acknowledge progress in noting that drugs- related deaths in Scotland have fallen for the second year in a row. It is encouraging there were 485 fatalities in 2010 as a result of drug use, according to official figures released yesterday, down from 545 in 2009 and 574 the year before.

However, it is also impossible not to agree with the verdict of experts in the field when they warn the drugs-related death toll is unacceptably high. Figures in international comparisons speak, chillingly, for themselves: the death rate in Scotland is about seven times the European average. In that context, calling the position unacceptable is something of an understatement.

Such statistics raise the inevitable question: what is to be done? As with all difficult questions there is no easy answer. Some have argued Scotland is too tolerant of drug addiction and programmes in which addicts are given methadone merely subdue the problem but do not tackle it. Others say such schemes at least give addicts a chance of a "normal" life.

However, those who favour the widespread use of methadone have to ask whether these latest figures, which show the heroin substitute was implicated in or potentially contributed to 174 deaths, compared to another frequently used drug, alcohol, which was involved in 127 fatalities. This would suggest there are serious problems with the methadone treatment programme which the government, doctors and health workers must address.