Committee
Health Committee, 23 Jan 2007
23 Jan 2007 · S2 · Health Committee
Item of business
Treatment of Drug Users
Alex MacKinnon:
Watch on SPTV
I come at the issue from the perspective of the body that represents all community pharmacists, who are at the sharp edge of delivering services to drug misusers, and as a pharmacist who had lots of experience of dealing with drug misusers earlier in his life. One of the most important points is to get early intervention. Drug users must see some sort of practitioner in the health service as early as possible.Methadone is extremely useful as a means of getting people off heroin, but not enough is done to try to reduce the dose and much more needs to be done on titration management to reduce the dose to get the person drug free. A lot more needs to be done to find other alternatives. Prescribed heroin has been mentioned. I am not sure that we should go down that route, but we should at least have the debate. On the continent, dihydrocodeine has been found to be just as effective as methadone. It is important to understand community pharmacists' point of view on the matter. They look on the drug misuser as a normal patient who must be respected and treated with dignity and who is presenting with a disease—a general health issue. There is much more to supervised methadone than the simple supply of a pharmaceutical. The pharmacist makes a default daily health check and the patient receives counselling and advice on other health matters, with possible referral to a practitioner. However, the service is lacking in the detoxification process and in rehabilitation. After all, most drug users, if interviewed, will say that they want to be free of their drug.At some stage, but not necessarily today, we should consider the implications of cocaine and crack cocaine for future generations.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
SNP
Agenda item 2 is a one-off round-table evidence-gathering session on the treatment of drug users in Scotland. We have been joined by senior representatives o...
Janis Hughes (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab):
Lab
I am the deputy convener of the committee.
Kate Maclean (Dundee West) (Lab):
Lab
I am a member of the committee.
Mark Frankland (First Base Agency):
I am the education manager at First Base Agency.
Mr Duncan McNeil (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab):
Lab
I am a member of the Health Committee.
Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD):
LD
I am a member of the Health Committee.
Ms Rosemary Byrne (South of Scotland) (Sol):
Sol
I am a member of the Scottish Parliament.
Dr Richard Watson (Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland):
I am clinical lead for drug misuse at the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland. I am a full-time general practitioner in Glasgow and deal with dru...
Professor Neil McKeganey (University of Glasgow):
I am director of the centre for drug misuse research at the University of Glasgow.
Alex MacKinnon (Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council):
I represent the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council.
Tom Wood (Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams):
I chair the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams and represent the 22 alcohol and drug action teams throughout Scotland.
Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab):
Lab
I am an MSP.
Dave Liddell (Scottish Drugs Forum):
I represent the Scottish Drugs Forum.
Dr Jean Turner (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Ind):
Ind
I am an MSP.
Stephen Moore (Association of Directors of Social Work):
I represent the Association of Directors of Social Work.
Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con):
Con
I am an MSP.
Catriona Renfrew (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde):
I am the director of corporate planning policy with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. We are responsible for providing drug and alcohol services for about a thi...
Shona Robison (Dundee East) (SNP):
SNP
I am a member of the committee.
The Convener:
SNP
We are expecting Lesley Finch from SCOT-PEP, the Scottish Prostitutes Education Project, and she may yet turn up. We have had no indication of whether she wi...
Professor McKeganey:
I will begin with a brief comment on funding. It is not easy to get information on funding for drug treatment services in Scotland, but the indications are t...
Tom Wood:
I thank the committee for inviting us. I am sure that all the guests who are round the table will agree that one deficit on the matter in Scotland has been t...
Ms Byrne:
Sol
How effective is the current approach? Drug treatment and rehabilitation in Scotland is patchy and unequal, and for those attempting to access services it is...
The Convener:
SNP
A round-table discussion is meant to flow more easily than a question-and-answer session. Witnesses will be entitled to put questions to other witnesses; it ...
Catriona Renfrew:
We could have a pretty strong consensus that drug treatment services are not as effective as they should be. The health board in my area spends about £37 mil...
Mark Frankland:
It is worth considering two factors that are particular to heroin addiction, which I think will dominate today's discussion. First, everyone will agree that ...
The Convener:
SNP
If an addict phones up to seek help, would you like contact to be made almost immediately? Should someone come round to see them straight away?
Mark Frankland:
Even more simply, I would like to see a system that used to obtain in general practitioners' surgeries when I was a boy. It was possible to ring, get an appo...
Catriona Renfrew:
Almost every part of the national health service now has an access standard. However, there are no access standards for drugs services, so we can keep people...
Alex MacKinnon:
I come at the issue from the perspective of the body that represents all community pharmacists, who are at the sharp edge of delivering services to drug misu...
The Convener:
SNP
I ask everybody, when a subject begins to emerge as a discussion issue, not to come in and immediately scatter-gun around with another set of issues as well....