More From Scotland

Outside of watching Trainspotting a couple of times, my knowledge of the heroin problem in Scotland is fairly limited. I know it has been a problem, like much of Western Europe but the scope of it probably escapes me. That being said, why should the taxpayers of Scotland continue to pay for a “drug treatment” program that relies totally on methadone and works in a mere 3% of cases? This is according to a study that came out of Scotland a few days ago that reported methadone treatment fails in 97% of the heroin addiction cases that it is used to treat. The old-fashion “I want to quit, so I’ll just stop doing whatever destructive thing it is I’m doing”, or as they put it, cold turkey in a rehab center works 27% of the time. I am skeptical of the numbers, but even if they are tilted to one bias or another it still doesn’t change my opinion that treatment--like the incarceration of drug users--shouldn’t be subsidized by taxpayers. Sure, I would rather my money be spent on treatment than jailing or court costs, I just don’t believe that it has to be one or the other.

Full article from the Scotsman, here.