Protest may see addicts return to heroin

LOCAL drug taskforces have warned pharmacists that their protest would prove counter-productive if they continued to put methadone patients at serious risk of returning to their heroin addiction.

The Network of Local Drug Task Forces yesterday condemned the action by around 140 pharmacists to withdraw from the methadone treatment scheme this week.

The network’s spokesman, David Connolly, said it had heard from several sources that many pharmacists had serious reservations about taking such drastic action as part of their dispute with the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Mr Connolly said this essential service must be resumed from next Monday or the damage caused to individual patients could be irreparable.

Meanwhile, dentists yesterday supported the under-pressure pharmacists as one of the biggest wholesalers in Ireland confirmed some pharmacies would be selling drugs at a loss due to a new pricing regime.

The interventions by the drug wholesaler Uniphar, which is a pharmacists’ co-operative, and the Irish Dental Association follows the launch yesterday of a Competition Authority investigation into pharmacists withdrawal from the methadone dispensing scheme.

Around 140 pharmacists withdrew from the scheme on Monday in a row that came to a head over reimbursement rates they receive on drugs sold to medical card holders.

The Irish Pharmaceutical Union says this will slash profits and in some cases lead to drugs being sold at a loss. The claim was backed up by Uniphar yesterday.

The HSE has set up 11 centres for registered methadone users to collect their prescriptions.

However experts fear that the difficulty is likely to see some users return to heroin use.