The drug substitute methadone is leading to the deaths of more addicts than heroin, disturbing figures have revealed.
A report by the Dublin City Coroner has shown that of the 87 inquests heard in his court last year, pure heroin was found to have caused the deaths of 14 people and contributed to a further 12. However, methadone, the legal substitute used to treat those with a heroin addiction, was found to have caused the deaths of 12 people and contributed to a further 19 deaths.
The highly lucrative nature of the "methadone industry" acting as a barrier to the exploration of other therapeutic treatments for drug addiction has now been highlighted by Marie Byrne, Director of Aisling Group International. "Doctors get a payment for putting people on methadone programmes. There is huge money in the methadone industry," she says, referring to capitation fees, which are paid to doctors who participate in the Methadone Maintenance Scheme.
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A report by the Dublin City Coroner has shown that of the 87 inquests heard in his court last year, pure heroin was found to have caused the deaths of 14 people and contributed to a further 12. However, methadone, the legal substitute used to treat those with a heroin addiction, was found to have caused the deaths of 12 people and contributed to a further 19 deaths.
The highly lucrative nature of the "methadone industry" acting as a barrier to the exploration of other therapeutic treatments for drug addiction has now been highlighted by Marie Byrne, Director of Aisling Group International. "Doctors get a payment for putting people on methadone programmes. There is huge money in the methadone industry," she says, referring to capitation fees, which are paid to doctors who participate in the Methadone Maintenance Scheme.
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1 comment:
Great post. There is alot of research out there on how many people are suffering from meth addiction(methadone and methamphetamine). In the US last year more than 100,000 people searched on the major search engines for information on meth addiction. It's a bigger problem than most people realize. Meth Research - this research was commissioned by a rehab center in 2007. Thought you might find something of interest there...
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