Fury over drug vending machine for jailed addicts

Jailed drug addicts are being given a heroin substitute through vending machines.

Manchester Prison has bought dispensers that allow convicts to get methadone by scanning their fingerprint or iris. The dispensers also operate in New Hall — the North-West women’s prison.

Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve, who uncovered details of the scheme, said it amounted to an admission of failure of attempts to get addicts clean.

The £4 million scheme is operating in 57 jails and will eventually cover half the 140 prisons in England and Wales.

That is £1 million more than the amount spent on an abstinence programme aimed at getting addicts off drugs, the Tories claim.

Mr Grieve said: “The public will be shocked that ministers are spending more on methadone vending machines than the entire budget for abstinence-based treatments.

“Getting prisoners clean of drugs is one of the keys to getting them to go straight. We need to get prisoners off all drug addiction — not substitute one dependency for another.

“The Government’s approach of trying to manage addiction is an admission of failure.”

Supporters say that methadone prescription gives the best hope of breaking the chaotic cycle of serious heroin use among drug addicts.

It has been compared with a nicotine patch, providing a slow, steady delivery that allows addicts to stabilise their cravings.

Usually taken as a syrup once a day, methadone helps to replace frequent daily injections of heroin, and the accompanying crime that addicts commit to pay for it.

But although methadone has been shown to reduce chronic heroin use and accompanying crime, the drug is said to be less successful at stopping people from taking drugs altogether. Some continue to use heroin, and use methadone as a top-up drug.

Critics say methadone just replaces one dependency with another, and others say it can be even harder to quit than heroin. It is also possible to overdose on methadone.

The Department of Health said it spent about £240 million on offender health each year — with £40 million going on drug-treatment programmes.

A DoH spokesman said: “Methadone dispensers are a safe and secure method for providing a prescribed treatment. They can only be accessed by the person who has been clinically assessed as needing methadone and that person is recognised by a biometric marker, such as their iris.

“A health professional then oversees the person taking the treatment.”