Methadone fee 'too costly for addicts'
Tue 24 Jun 2008
Heroin addicts trying to wean themselves off the drug with methadone are struggling to pay pharmacy fees for the treatment, a new report has found.
A study by RMIT University in Melbourne has warned that an increasing number of hard drug users are being forced to resort to sex work or crime to pay for their weekly methadone supply.
Some are going without meals to meet the costs, while others are abandoning treatment under the strain and relapsing into heroin addiction as a result, says the report's author, Dr James Rowe.
The federal government funds methadone treatment but most pharmacies charge a $60 dispensing fee for a two-week supply.
Dr Rowe said evidence from his survey of 120 methadone users showed the strain of meeting the regular cost was widespread.
"Recovering drug addicts are usually trying to survive on very low incomes and the struggle to find $60 a fortnight to pay for their health treatment is driving some people to breaking point," he said.
The report, released in Melbourne, found many patients on limited incomes had their treatment discontinued against their will because they were unable to continue paying dispensing fees.
Dr Rowe, from the university's Centre for Applied Social Research, said it was time the federal government fully subsidised methadone under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) in line with other treatments.
"People who suffer from other health issues, including problems that may be attributed to their past lifestyles such as type two diabetes, high cholesterol or alcoholism, have both the cost of their medication and the dispensing fees charged by pharmacists subsidised under the PBS," he said.
"The government needs to act so people who are trying to recover from addictions are not forced to extreme measures to pay for their legitimate medical treatment, or driven off treatment programs and back to their drug habits."
Methadone, taken by about 40,000 Australians, is regarded as the mainstay of treatment for heroin addiction.
The drug, which has been available since the 1970s, works by chemically blocking the craving for heroin without mimicking heroin's warm, euphoric "rush".