Vic: Methodone in prisons would save lives: minister

AAP General News (Australia)
02-20-2000
Vic: Methodone in prisons would save lives: minister

By Trevor Chappell

MELBOURNE, Feb 20 AAP - A methadone program in Victoria's jails would save lives and
lead to lower crime, Corrections Minister Andre Haermeyer said today.

Mr Haermeyer said he wanted methodone to be used in state prisons to wean inmates off heroin.

Women prisoners would probably be involved in a pilot program.

The minister said more than 65 per cent of Victoria's 3,000-plus prisoners were in
jail for drug-related crime.

"The heroin problem in the community and the heroin problem and the drug problem within
our prisons is one of the most significant problems we face," Mr Haermeyer told reporters.

"A properly supervised methadone maintenance program would act as a crime-buster and save lives."

Mr Haermeyer said many heroin-addicted prisoners tried to withdraw from heroin without
assistance while they completed their sentences, but went back to the drug when they were
released.

Some died within days of release because their tolerance level for heroin had changed,
while others returned to crime to finance their drug habit.

Mr Haermeyer said he had directed the Corrections Commissioner to advise him on how
a methadone program could be introduced, and which prison could conduct a pilot program.

It was hoped that a pilot program could start this year.

"The number of women inmates convicted of drug-related offences who have died soon
after leaving jail has been a concern, so I think female prisoners would be involved in
the pilot program," Mr Haermayer said.

At present only prisoners on methadone treatment before they came in to prison - about
six per cent of the prison population - were allowed to maintain treatment.

Mr Haermeyer said methadone programs in South Australia and New South Wales showed
the drug was one of the best ways to treat heroin addiction.

"It's basically dealing with a very serious social problem - there are no perfect answers
to the heroin issue," he said.

"At the end of the day, taxpayers, I think, would far prefer if people weren't out
there robbing convenience stores, robbing their houses, and I think taxpayers would also
not want to see people who basically have a chronic addiction die of overdoses."

Mr Haermeyer said very stringent criteria for prisoners to get on to a methadone program
would ensure that people did not go onto it simply to pass the time while in prison.

AAP tsc/er/pjs/br

KEYWORD: METHADONE

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