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Drug users to be offered iPods
Dean Mortlock
0 comments 23 July 2007
Britain’s National Health Service is planning to introduce a scheme in the UK to reward drug abusers with points, which they can then cash in for objects such as iPods.
According to the story in the Sunday Times, The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) will recommend implementing a scheme where drug abusers earn points every time they’re tested free of drugs.
The scheme is a mirror of one that has been trialed successfully in America. The University of Connecticut found that cocaine and methamphetamine users stayed drug-free for much longer when there was an incentive to keep clean.
The scheme is obviously not without its critics, though. Katherine Murphy of the Patients Association said: “Why should these people with self-inflicted problems be given priority over people who have a genuine illness? Some people with genuine disease are being forced to sell their homes for the medicines they need.”
Nice claim though that the money spent on the scheme will be more than recouped, as those who stay clean will make fewer demands of the NHS.
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