General Chat

mo...

From the BBC News site.... Drug addicts receiving treatment should be given shopping vouchers to encourage them to kick their habit, an NHS body has suggested. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence accepts the idea for England and Wales is controversial. But evidence from international trials shows modest financial incentives can cut drug abuse by hardened addicts. Users could get vouchers worth up to £10 at NHS treatment programmes - if tests show they are free of drugs. I don't think it's bribery - I think it's an effective treatment that brings real benefit Mr Stephen Pilling Consultant clinical psychologist NICE says the idea would be cost-effective, and there would be a public health benefit because addicts could also be screened for infectious diseases - such as HIV and tuberculosis. The proposal for an incentive scheme is contained in draft guidance on how the NHS in England and Wales should handle drug misuse. Debates about how NHS money should be spent have intensified in recent years. NICE will soon face its first legal challenge when groups angry about restrictions on drugs for Alzheimer's Disease challenge its processes. What do you think?

Stick them om an uninhabited island and let them all go cold turkey John

Surely this is just another way of taking away from others who are more deserving ? Lin x

Will they be offering the same for those wanting to give up fags and booze? I doubt it, so why should druggies get incentives?

This is the problem Jeanette. While I agree that those addicted to drugs need all the help they can get to get off them, and if those kind of incentives do work, then all well and good. Alcoholics need the same help, not necessarily with shopping vouchers, but some kind of incentive too....what do they get? Smoking is a contentious issue, but being a hardened smoker myself, I do know that the addiction is a very real one too. Strangely the law now shows us as social outcasts for using a legal substance, but thats another debate. On the other hand, all OUR money is spent on vouchers for addicts, but there isn't the cash to spare for treatment for breast cancer, or alzheimers....

what defines a dug addict, surely those that are addicted to alcohol, nicotine, anti-depressants, etc... are they all to benefit from quitting? would make a very interesting test case in court. bryan.

Exactly TW! Drug addicts get shopping vouchers. Smokers get treated like parihas (sp?) and will soon be banned for partaking of a legal substance in public. I don't even agree with free patches for somkers cos if you smoke 20 a day, it's cheaper to buy patches than cigarettes anyway. Like you say, spend the money on those that deserve it

As long as treatment is denied to people who are ill through no fault of their own, this ridiculous idea should be binned. Reg

I agree Peter, it is very open to abuse.

This government really has lost the plot, and don't forget all of this comes out or your hard earned money which is taken off you in taxes. You can just see it on the news can't you, 'Two shopping vouchers exchange for a fixf'

Nudge for Lisa... Been trying to get this debate going lol

i think that they should get no reward. we have to take stock of our lives and be responsible for our actions...like teresa said alcoholics won't get thesexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx))):

Jolene by dolly Parton ....

In USA drug addicts and smokers get them - (and probably alcoholics!) It's only £10 - hardly a fortune - 50k will be issued = total spend 500k. They probably use that money in a day treating these addicts. If it gets a handful of addicts off the drugs then surely it has been worth it? Not to mention the crimes that a lot of them commit etc etc Debby

i feel that they should not be treated to luxuries like vouchers if they really wanted to get off it programmes are the right way to do it...why should the tax payer have to fork out.....that could be going towards education etc.....they will still be in programmes will be tested etc and get the vouchers so it will cost the taxpayer morexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx))))):

whooooppppssssss wrong thread lol

Well I got patches from my doctors clinic to stop smoking - I only paid the prescription price £6.50 and received a months supply which equated to £66 worth of patches. Must have been a waste of taxpayers money that then? Debby

i feel that smokers should pay for there patches...i have to for my steroids for my asthma which i have to pay for every single item wheres the fairness in thatxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx((((:

Your steroids probably cost as much as a months worth of patches, and with the higher taxes that smokers pay, there's really no argument. However, I do agree with it being wrong to pay for asthma treatment, it is a life-threatening condition that has to be managed. Diabetics get their prescriptions free, and I really believe asthmatics should too. It's never going to happen while we are paying for shopping vouchers for drug addicts though...