Concern over rewards for drug users

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An official study found many clinics in England rewarded users with increased doses of heroin substitute methadone or anti-depressants for providing clean urine samples.

The survey was conducted for the National Treatment Agency (NTA), which runs the Government's £500 million-a-year addiction treatment programme.

The NTA admitted offering drugs for anything other than clinical need was unethical and said it wanted to see certain practices "squeezed out of the system", the BBC reported.

Nearly a third of the 191 clinics surveyed said they would consider giving extra methadone to those undergoing treatment for heroin addiction whose urine samples were clear of crack and cocaine.

Less common rewards for drug users' good behaviour included anti-depressants, shopping vouchers and access to detox.

Public Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said the practice - which is known as "contingency management" and has proved successful in controlled US studies - raised "very serious issues".

While insisting the NTA did not accept the problem was on the scale suggested, she said it was "unacceptable" and should not happen.

But the Conservatives said the Government's drugs policy was "a shambles" and claimed giving addicts methadone did not get them off heroin.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "It is outrageous that the Government is prepared to spend half a billion pounds on keeping people addicted. Only the Conservatives have the will and the policies to start combating addiction. We would expand a residential abstinence-based drugs programme which has proved more successful in getting addicts clean."