HONG KONG STANDARD
OCT8 T13
Drug cure for addicts
in prison
is
THE GOVERN- MINT
supplying Stanley Prison inmates with methadone in an effort to curb the illicit drug traffic in the prison.
About 70 addicts at the prison are being given daily doses of
methadone,
a
synthetic drug believed to block the craving for heroin.
Prison officials hope that 300 to 500 of Stanley Prison's 3,000 inmates will be treated in the future under the scheme, known as "Methadone Substitution,'
The scheme, carried under the supervision of the Medical and Health Department, was started last June.
This was revealed to the Stan: bird this week by Mr Balwant Singh. Chief Officer (Hospital).
He said: "One of the main
PROJECT
TO BEAT
HEROIN
PROBLEM
by Tony Bugay
the
reasons we began methadone substitution scheme was to fight the underground drug traffic in the prison.
"We hope that there will be less of a demand for heroin and that eventually, the drugs traffic will suffer to the extent that it night oven die out,'
19
Mr Singh said: "I think our scheme is beginning to work. There have not been many drug seizures of late in the prison.
"If the substitution works,
we should be able to beat the drugs problem in two years."
The scheme started with only a "handful" of inmates but there are now 66 volunteers.
"We had to get the scheme approved by the World Health Organisation fust," We also had meetings with the Medical and Health Department as well as with_top_government officials."
Mr Singh said that the programme was being carried out on a completely voluntary basis. "This is not a thing you dish out to anyone who comes and asks for it,” said Mr Singh. Every potential volunteer was carefully screened first.
"First, he is admitted to the prison hospital where he is observed for 24 hours for physical signs of heroin withdrawal before any methadone is given.
"He then starts off on a minimum dose of 10 milligrams of methadone which is given in an orange base.
"He is given this twice a day and we continue to observe him for a week before he is ready to be discharged to his call," Mr Singh said.
Once outside the hospital, treatment was continued with a daily dosage of 40 milligrams for each patient. The patient is made to take their doses before la doctor.
CHECKS
Volunteers: were also checked for urine samples to see if they were keeping off heroin while under methadone treatment, "
Only in one cafe had a volunteer's urine test indicated that he had taken heroin, Mr Singh said.
Ile said that the average age of the volunteers was about 40 and that only two of the 66 patients had taken methadone before.
"No one has refused to continue the treatment," Mr Singh said. "I'm sure that more prisoners will respond in the future. At the moment they are waiting to see how it affects those who have volunteered.
Mr Singh said that about 70 per cent of prisoners in Stanley Prison had been addicts before they came in.
People sometimes get the wrong impression that prisoners become addicts at Stanley. This is not so," he said.
Mr Singh said that the medical department may carry on with the methadone treatment for the prisoners from Stanley once they have completed their jail terms.
He said that the methadone project costs about $14 a day.
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