n 2007, State agencies spent an estimated total of €140 million on the provision of treatment and rehabilitation services for problem drug users, and some of this expenditure can be reduced through progressing clients to detoxification and rehabilitation, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General Mr John Buckley.
According to a value for money report into the drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation services published by the Comptroller recently, about 8,000 individuals were receiving methadone for opiate addiction at the end of 2007.
And while there was a significant increase in the number of individuals receiving methadone treatment over the life of the National Drugs Strategy, the proportion of those receiving the heroin substitute recorded as progressing to detoxification and subsequent rehabilitation was “very low”.
Source: Lloyd Mudiwa, The Irish Medical Times, 22/06/2009
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