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Britain
Prisoners poised to win payouts for 'cold turkey' drug treatment
2006-11-13
Prisoners are set to be paid compensation because they were forced to stop taking drugs in jail. Drugs charity DrugScope said the group of six inmates and former inmates who used heroin and other opiates were on the verge of settling out of court with the Prison Service after suing the Home Office.

The case - alleging the "cold turkey" withdrawal treatment they were forced to undergo amounted to assault - was scheduled to start at the High Court today.
From a medical standpoint this is nonsense. Guess how many people worldwide have died due to heroin withdrawal?

Go on, guess.

Zero. Nada. Unlike alcohol (delerium tremens), unlike barbituates, no one dies from heroin withdrawal. You feel absolutely miserable for a couple days, but if you want to avoid that you pro'ly shouldn't get hooked on horse in the first place.
The size of the payouts under discussion have not been revealed. But the compensation levels are due to be finalised tomorrow or Wednesday, legal sources said.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said the case set a "disastrous" precedent and accused Home Secretary John Reid of failing to protect the public. Mr Davis said: "Presumably the Government does not want to be embarrassed by losing such a case under its own human rights legislation.

"Drugs are a scourge on society and completely undermine all our other efforts to fight crime. By doing this Mr Reid would be letting down the taxpayer, the victims of these offenders and the drug addicts themselves. The precedent would be disastrous."

He added: "This would be a massive failure of political nerve by Mr Reid and a massive failure in his core duty to protect the public."

Former Tory prisons minister Ann Widdecombe said: "It's an insult to every victim and every law abiding person.

"As far as I'm concerned there is no human right to continue a drug habit when you go to prison.

"This Prison Service will be paying out money it should not be."

Convicts should have no option but to go cold turkey once they passed through the prison gates, she said. "The fact is they do not because there's a ready supply inside," she added. If she had still been a Home Office minister, she would have ordered prison chiefs not to pay up, she said

High Court judge Mr Justice Langstaff gave the go-ahead in May for a full hearing of the case. It focused on six test cases chosen from a total pool of 198 claimants. When finally resolved this week, all 198 may be handed compensation by the Prison Service - with sums potentially running into tens of thousands of pounds.
The Brits, people I admire and respect greatly, are absolutely, positively taking the road to perdition.
Posted by:tipper

#5  Moose, I worked for a while in a detox unit. Standard therapy for heroin withdrawal is 1) lomotil to stop the diarrhea 2) clonidine to stop the withdrawal symptoms and 3) a beta-blocker (e.g., propranolol) to fix the sympathetic neural responses. Inducing coma is not required.

The three drugs together manage acute withdrawal very well; you then get going on the methadone and group therapy.
Posted by: Steve White   2006-11-13 16:16  

#4  What's the death rate among practicing junkies?
A hell of a lot more than 1 in 1000 I should think.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2006-11-13 11:23  

#3  Anonymoose

Surely the person who should be deciding should be the Addict with the advice of his doctor?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan   2006-11-13 10:37  

#2  Actually, heroin withdrawl is *rarely* fatal, usually in individuals who are already in poor health, or by those who choke on their vomit.

Heroin addiction is ugly from several directions.

Withdrawal is sometimes used by the police to coerce information and confessions, and profiteering from methadone providers can be pretty grotesque, with profits sometimes exceeding 95% of the cost of the drug.

Ironically, an effective technique for "painless and effective" withdrawal and cessation was invented at least a decade ago. Three drugs were used: to induce coma, to deplete heroin from the body, and to block its effects. After four days of coma, they wake up drug free, needing only twice months injections of druck blocker for six months to end their addiction. In Europe it seemed to show great prospects.

It was bitterly opposed by the operators of methadone clinics, who are in essence drug dealers, trading one addiction for another. They successfully prevented even experimental trials in the US.

They used as excuse that about 1 in 1000 junkies would die when put into an induced coma, again due to their weakened health condition. Therefore, the procedure was "not safe."
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-11-13 08:23  

#1  This is total idiocy and that's coming from somebody who thinks all substances should be de-criminalised (but being high in public should be illegal).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan   2006-11-13 06:59  

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