Scotland’s drugs minister has pledged a long awaited blitz on benzos after claims that new reforms have ignored Scotland’s worst killer drugs.
Thousands have died in recent years due to street Valium and polydrug use.
But the Scottish Government has taken little action directly focused on the lethal blue, white or yellow pills churned out by the million in backstreet Scottish drug factories and sold for pennies on streets.
After Angela Constance warmly greeted the publication of “groundbreaking” Medical Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards by the Scottish Drug Deaths Task Force this week, she was criticised for failing to act fast enough on benzos.
There is currently virtually zero prescribing of diazepam (the active ingredient in Valium) for benzo addiction but many people believe this needs to be urgently looked at.
One drugs worker, a former addict who has worked in the field for 20 years, was personally invited to meet Constance after sending his own ideas on tackling “blues” and suggesting benzos should be given the same priority as opiates.
He tweeted: “I’d offer more flexibility to what’s on offer – day one benzo scripts – not only for long term opiate users.
“There is a fear at present that doing this will overwhelm them and many will continue to use illicitly so all users get nothing. That’s not person centred, it’s service led.”
Constance said she agreed that benzos should be a key priority.
The worker, John, told the Record: “I was invited to send in my ideas, based on watching 20 years of abject failure, and that’s what I did.
“I have to say that greeting the 10 new MAT Standards for drug treatment like an answer to our problems is a fantasy. To me, it looks like a rehash of stuff that was proposed before then
got ignored.
“The key question is now very clear – what are we going to do about benzos?
“The MAT standards offer prescriptions for treatment from day one but we still have a nation where it’s very hard for GPs to write a single prescription for benzos, even if they want to.
“The argument put forward by health chiefs is always the same – that GPs can’t prescribe to people if they feel they will be topping up with their own street supply or mixing with other drugs. They also say they can’t prescribe for street drugs because they don’t even know what’s in them.
“But that is so perverse when we consider that we have a generation of people on methadone and every GP in the land knows the vast majority are mixing their script with heroin or street Valium, or very often both.
“If there is benefit in prescribing for opiates, there should be benefits for street Valium.”
He added: “When we started giving adequate doses of methadone more than 20 years ago, we virtually killed off street heroin dealing but we seem so reticent now to do the same with street benzos.
“What we are effectively doing is allowing people who are addicted and at huge risk of death to keep going back to street dealers to get the unregulated crap that’s being mixed up randomly by criminals.”
In his letter to Constance, John writes: “At present there is no willingness from prescribers within Glasgow ADRS to commence benzodiazepine prescribing to new patients or non-opiate users and they have given this guidance to GPs as well. This is despite the growing evidence that homemade benzodiazepines are a significant factor if not the main factor in the ever rising drug death figures.
“The reasons given are capacity – too many users in community and we can’t treat them all and a belief that
benzodiazepine prescribing is ineffective.
“Both these points may have some validity but we don’t refuse/withhold ORT (Opiate Replacement Therapy) treatments for either of these reasons.
“And there is plenty of evidence to indicate that current ORT prescribing has not achieved its goals of ending illicit opiate use but we continue to commence this with little concern even to individuals who have multiple unproductive attempts under their belt.”
The worker also slams the “ridiculously short” terms of rehab currently offered.
Scotland’s MAT standards promise to allow people to start treatment on the day they present to GPs or agencies.
The Drug Deaths Task Force formed a specialist team to look at benzos last year and is due to report back this month.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Drug Death Taskforce have established a Benzodiazepine Working Group which is currently taking forward a specific piece of work examining the best ways to treat benzodiazepine dependence and the extent to which prescribing benzodiazepines may reduce the levels of use of the illicit alternatives.
“Our new MAT standards will mean everyone with problematic drug use can access the right support for them regardless of their situation or location. Making help available and giving people an informed choice is an essential part of respecting a person’s rights and dignity.”
