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Drug addicts will get a £200 reward if they come off heroin
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11 June 2008
Incentive: Heroin addicts will be offered money to kick the habit
Heroin addicts who kick their addiction will be given up to £200 each.
They will be given vouchers to buy such things as clothes and bicycles as a reward for not taking any more drugs.
They will also be able to buy food, bus passes and pay their gas and electricity bills.
Initially,some 1,000 addicts will be offered the incentives for six months. But if successful, it could be extended to 50,000 addicts nationwide.
Public health minister Dawn Primarolo said no cash would change hands.
She added: 'This trial will investigate whether certain incentives will encourage drug users to re-establish their lives and stay off drugs.
'It will be fully evaluated to see whether or not it could be implemented nationally.'
Critics have questioned the wisdom of lavishing funds on heroin users – whose condition is self-inflicted – while denying drugs to those with other crippling conditions.
Sufferers of Alzheimer's disease, for example, have faced a long and bitter fight over a decision to deny them a prescription of £2.50-a-day tablets which alleviate the devastating symptoms of the disease.
Mark Wallace, campaign director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Why should law-abiding taxpayers have to foot the bill for bribing drug addicts? There is already a large budget for drug rehabilitation without adding rewards on top.
'No one gets a reward for not becoming a drug addict in the first place.'
But Dr John Dunn, consultant psychiatrist and clinical adviser to the National Treatment Agency, which is running the scheme, said: 'This new approach is a way of helping people regain control over their chaotic lives.'
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