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'We're replacing one addiction with another': Number of people accessing methadone up 600% in some counties

For the last 20 years, methadone has been the mainstay of harm reduction services in Ireland.

THE NUMBER OF people accessing methadone in the last 10 years has risen by more than 600% in some counties.

Figures obtained by the PA news agency through freedom of information laws show Ireland’s use of methadone treatment protocol (MTP), used to treat heroin addiction, has rapidly increased in some parts of the country.

The number of methadone users in Co Kerry in 2018 is almost seven times higher than it was in 2008, going from 13 to 89.

Cork has seen a 400% increase, with 91 methadone users in 2008, and 398 in 2018.

Users in Co Tipperary have increased from 40 to 155, and in Co Waterford they rose from 19 to 157.

Counties such as Carlow, Cavan, Kilkenny, Longford, Offaly, Louth, Wexford, Galway and Clare have all seen their figures at least double since 2008.

In contrast, Dublin has slightly reduced its methadone user numbers from 6,669 in 2008 to 6,230 last year.

For the last 20 years, methadone has been the mainstay of harm reduction services in Ireland.

There are currently 10,203 people in a methadone treatment programme across Ireland, 7,159 men and 3,042 women.

The majority of people in the programme are aged 45 years and over.

Sinn Fein TD for Cork North Central Jonathan O’Brien has raised the issue of the ever-growing problem of heroin in Cork City with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and says additional gardaí resources to fight heroin supply gangs and improved addiction supports is the best way to tackle the issue.

“These figures are worrying for a number of reasons,” he said.

“Firstly they show that more and more people are seeking treatment for heroin addiction, which is positive, but they also show up the failure in drugs policy to trying to get individuals into treatment programmes.

There is simply not enough resources being put into the services a recovering addict needs, life skills, counselling to address underlying mental health issues and living arrangements.

“Putting people on methadone should be a short term stop gap measure to allow adequate services be put in place such as residential detox beds and rehab.

“We are just replacing one addiction with another and some addicts will argue that methadone is harder to detox from than Heroin.

“You’ll also note that the age profile of those on methadone is rising indicating that people are on methadone years and not enough is being done to help individuals beat their addiction.”

Dr Garrett McGovern, an addiction specialist in Priority Medical Clinic, says that the numbers of those using methadone have remained steady.

“They have been in and around 10,000 for over 10 years now and the lack of movement generally relates to lack of treatment expansion outside Dublin,” he said.

“Opioid substitution treatment (OST) is the most effective intervention for heroin addiction with over five decades of research supporting its use.

The longer a patient stays on it the more protective it is against overdose, Hep C and HIV transmission and relapse to heroin use.

The Department of Health has been contacted for comment.

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    Mute Sean Ryan
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:19 PM

    There should be no such thing as methadone maintenance, it should be short term and titrated (as was the original plan). I’m aware of the complexity of addiction but long term maintenance doesn’t help (nor does it diminish social issues associated with addiction). Better inpatient treatment and support/follow up is needed.

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    Mute Coco86
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:24 PM

    @Sean Ryan: Well said Sean. Unfortunately addiction is not seen as an illness by the majority of people who in their ignorance will see your suggestion as a waste of tax payers money. We are all addicts in some shape or form be it drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, food, working out, OTC tablets – whatever. Attitudes to addiction needs to change and instead of focusing on reasons to stop using address why it started to begin with.

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    Mute Dan2078
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:38 PM

    @Coco86: lots of us have addictions. I work and pay for my own addictions

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    Mute Juniper
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:49 PM

    @Sean Ryan: evidence would say otherwise Sean

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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:53 PM

    @Juniper: there’s evidence to the contrary!

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    Mute Coco86
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    Dec 24th 2019, 1:27 PM

    @Dan2078: Blue Peter badge on its way

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    Mute DERRY1973
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    Dec 24th 2019, 2:39 PM

    @Coco86: since time began humans have had a addictive streek in them, its the ability to function in a normal society and be capable of paying your way that matters. You keep throwing biscuits to a bear he’ll keep eating them.

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    Mute Juniper
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    Dec 24th 2019, 8:23 PM

    @Michael Burke: best medical evidence suggests methadone replacement is the most effective strategy worldwide. I do not condone such an approach, but that’s the evidence

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    Mute Layne Humphries
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    Dec 24th 2019, 9:53 PM

    @Dan2078: Yeah, but those women are trafficked. Doesn’t make you any better than someone with a heroin addiction. You make me sick.

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    Mute paul kelly
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:21 PM

    Legalised opiates like this save money – lower hepititis infection,less HIV, and all the subsequent chronic medical costs less overdoses and acute medical costs, less petty crime to pay for the illegal drugs, less organised crime to control the supply of illegal opiates.
    No brainer really.

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    Mute Dom Layzell
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    Dec 24th 2019, 4:41 PM

    @paul kelly: As much as I hate to say it Paul, but you are right. Legalise it, get rid of the dealers!

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    Mute JDB
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    Dec 24th 2019, 6:22 PM

    @Dom Layzell: execute dealers would be an option worth considering.

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    Mute paul kelly
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    Dec 24th 2019, 7:00 PM

    @JDB: eh …..no, it is not an option.

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    Mute Lapsy Pa
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    Dec 24th 2019, 8:03 PM

    @Dom Layzell: I don’t think legalizing heroin would be wise but the legalization of cannabis does reduce heroin use . Since the non prosecution of cannabis possession in Holland was introduced , people born in Holland are the least likely to form a heroin addiction . If weed and heroin is coming from the same source on a black market the people selling are going to try introduce you to heroin as it’s more lucrative and will create increasingly higher strength strains of weed so they have reason to charge you more for less weight( the cannabis in Dutch coffee shops is weaker than let’s say the skunk proliferated black market in London ) . So the gateway/reason to /for heroin use isn’t the addiction of cannabis when it’s not physically addictive , leading to the use of heroin or the ever increasing immunity to the numbing of post trauma the gateway/reason to/for heroin use is having people who use intimidation , debt or force taking advantage of less educated communities rather than meeting consumer demand . Heroin/opiates is highly addictive and destructive in all forms , whereas cannabis really isn’t , only paranoia is the fact you’ll get in trouble for it or you left your jacket behind in a coffee shop and have to go back in to get it in a rather wobbly walk while being rightly laughed at by the clientele .

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    Mute JDB
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    Dec 24th 2019, 8:39 PM

    @paul kelly: why not Paul ? Cut off the heads of the snakes and problem solved . They have no bother enslaving and killing junkies for money.

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    Mute Ivan Connolly
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    Dec 24th 2019, 9:36 PM

    @JDB:leaving aside the obvious point that as a member of the EU you cannot have capital punishment, there are lots of countries that do execute drug dealers and its has no impact whatsoever on the supply chain. Unlike your analogy there is so much money to be made that every time you cut of a head a new one appears. There will always be someone to supply as long as there is a demand and its seems highly improbable that demand will ever end.

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    Mute Dan2078
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:09 PM

    And who’s paying for it?

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    Mute rumug
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:13 PM

    @Dan2078: Dara Murphy.

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    Mute Dan2078
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:18 PM

    @rumug: haha, that fecker only steals from the poor

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    Mute Coco86
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:18 PM

    @Dan2078: What’s your point?

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    Mute Bernard Cantillon
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:25 PM

    Methadone maintenance has been a wonder protocol allowing thousands of children to grow up with their parents alive and able to function as their parents and be active economically, educationally, socially. Some people can be detoxed off opiates but for many people they will never achieve this and to expect they do so, is to condemn them to death by overdose.

    It is nonsense to talk about it as a stepping stone on the road to total abstinence or any other short term treatment. Methadone allows people with opiate dependency issues to live.

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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:57 PM

    @Bernard Cantillon: the option of stopping taking is frowned upon within the services, unfortunately though. People can and do become drug free and they will have even healthier and more productive and positive lives if they are supported in achieving a drug free lifestyle.

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    Mute EillieEs
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    Dec 24th 2019, 1:27 PM

    @Bernard Cantillon: I don’t see where anyone is suggesting it should be short-term, it should, though, be looked at as a means of eventually becoming drug-free rather than being caught in a trap for life.

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    Mute Football in the Groin
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:42 PM

    “We’re replacing one addiction with another”

    This wasn’t obvious from the very beginning?

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    Mute Ellensborough Build
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    Dec 24th 2019, 1:22 PM

    The system in Ireland actually punishes Users for trying to reduce intake. All registered users should have an addiction counselor whose main objective is to help the reduce then quit methadone completely. Unfortunately it appears there is money to be made by keeping them strung out on methadone for life

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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Dec 24th 2019, 10:06 PM

    @Ellensborough Build: it’s the policy of many of the services, such as Anna Liffey Project and Merchants Quay to have a policy of “meet them where they’re at”, the more cynical would characterise it as a KEEP them where they’re at policy. Addicts can and do get to become totally abstinent from all drugs, just the same as alcoholics get sober, with the correct support and the help of peer support groups such as Narcotics Anonymous. https://www.na-ireland.org/

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    Mute Shimo Tbay
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    Dec 24th 2019, 6:36 PM

    So Heroin addiction is a disease, well so is cancer. Why are drug addicts entitled to free meds while cancer patients have to pay for chemo meds?

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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Dec 24th 2019, 1:01 PM

    This will, in years to come, become another instance of poor public policy, resulting in financial payouts to those whose lives are being impacted by the incorrect overuse of opiate substitution.

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    Mute Colin
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    Dec 24th 2019, 1:50 PM

    They have pushed heroin addiction out to villages and towns throughout the country, if you look at the figures methadone use in Dublin has been falling while rising everywhere else, Drug counsellors in Dublin are advising patients to move out of Dublin to get out of the circles. Drug dealers in the country are seeing a demand for heroin and pushing it

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    Mute dB O'Neill
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:53 PM

    I was worried the sugar tax would affect sales of this product, luckily big pharma were ahead of the curve.

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:34 PM

    And no-one saw this as a potential problem no???!!!!

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    Mute Dermot Donnelly
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    Dec 24th 2019, 12:58 PM

    So there’s a rampant heroin problem but we want to stop treating it ?

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    Mute EMPCoburn
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    Dec 24th 2019, 4:38 PM

    Blessed Matt Talbot is THE man for addictions.

    PRAYER FOR THE ADDICTED

    God of mercy, we bless You in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who ministered to all who come to Him. Give Your strength to N., Your servant, bound by the chains of addiction. Enfold him/her in Your love and restore him/her to the freedom of God’s children. Lord, look with compassion on all those who have lost their health and freedom. Restore to them the assurance of Your unfailing mercy, and strengthen them in the work of recovery. To those who care for them, grant patient understanding and a love that perseveres. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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    Mute Brad Dylan
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    Dec 24th 2019, 4:49 PM

    600% decrease in people using heroin

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Dec 24th 2019, 5:47 PM

    @Brad Dylan: Seems reasonable enough. It decreases crime. Otherwise – if you have planes circling in a holding pattern, the answer is patience and not, surely, to have them all crash-land in a random field.

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    Mute MitchConnor
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    Dec 24th 2019, 3:57 PM

    Should be locked in a room and made reevaluate your choices.

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    Mute PC
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    Dec 24th 2019, 4:00 PM

    Methadone can’t be that bad for you, it’s sugar free.

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