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Several influential charities have
decried a government blueprint for a recovery-based drug treatment system as
“dangerously and deeply flawed” and an “ideological attack” on established
interventions.
The blueprint document, “Putting
Full Recovery First,” was published in March and is supported by eight
government agencies, including the Department of Health. It comforms to the
official governmental drug strategy published in December 2010.
Opponents include top HIV/AIDS
charities the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and the National AIDS Trust (NAT),
and the drugs/human rights charity Release. The coalition wrote to Drugs
Minister Lord Henley and Prime Minister David Cameron warning the plan would be
“disastrous” for drug-dependent people.
The charities say the plan
overreaches governmental strategies to prioritize abstinence and “full
recovery” above “proven” drug treatments such as methadone for heroin
addiction. Conservative Member of Parliament David Burrowes helped draft the
plan and disagrees, adding that charities and service providers collaborated on
the document.
The coalition labeled the full
recovery concept as disingenuous considering the propensity for relapse and the
potential for transmitting blood-borne viruses should “evidence-based
interventions” like needle-exchange programs cease. The charities upheld
evidence crediting NEPs for the low HIV prevalence among UK injecting drug
users (IDUs), and they acknowledged substitute treatments for reducing overdose
rates.
Advocates also fear the plan’s
compensation of service providers per person becoming “chemical-free”
trivializes “the complex nature of drug dependence.” The coalition noted that
the absence of a comprehensive cost analysis could find service providers
trying to ensure their compensation by excluding those less likely to recover
fully. THT Policy Director Lisa Power admonished Britain against abandoning the
harm-reduction models that have helped curb the spread of HIV among IDUs, which
also helped protect the heterosexual population.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
