During the most recent election for the office of Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron promised to make treatment for those suffering from drug addiction one of his highest priorities. However, a report recently released by the Centre for Policy Studies shows that Cameron hasn’t kept his promise and that Britain is spending upwards of $6 billion a year on welfare payments to heroin addicts and their children, and to keep them supplied with Methadone.

Methadone is a pharmaceutical substance used to treat heroin addiction. Methadone acts on the same opioid receptors as heroin and morphine and has some of the same effects as these drugs. Methadone maintenance treatment is a program intended to help users stop taking heroin. Because Methadone is long lasting and actually prevents heroin from having euphoric effects, people on Methadone stop ingesting heroin because they can no longer get “high” from it and thus, no longer crave it.

It is important to note, however, that although the goal of Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is to eventually allow the patient to be substance free, this rarely happens as patients quickly become addicted to the Methadone instead. The more realistic goals of MMT are, therefore, the elimination of the use of illicit substances and the criminal issues that go along with them, as well as reduction in transmission of HIV and hepatitis from dirty needles.

Sadly, an MMT industry has blossomed among the less savory segment of addiction treatment professionals. Although they tout Methadone as the cure for heroin addiction, they downplay the fact that most patients will require constant Methadone treatment in order to stay clean. The operators of Methadone clinics are making billions of dollars from what amounts to government-authorized drug dealing.

The mainstream addiction treatment community understands that the only effective way to deal with Heroin addiction is intensive treatment in a drug rehab facility that subscribes to a policy of zero tolerance for addictive substances. However, because the cost of treatment for a single stint in drug rehab can be exponentially higher than a single course of MMT, governments prefer to believe the MMT operators who claim that MMT is the most economical choice. The sad truth is that most recovering heroin addicts will need MMT for the rest of their lives if they do not get more substantial addiction treatment.

David Cameron has gone on record attacking the government’s policy of using Methadone treatment as a substitute for intensive drug rehab, declaring that the goal of drug addiction treatment should be getting people completely off drugs, not just replacing a drug addict’s drug of choice with Methadone. In order to achieve this goal, Cameron had advocated for more residential drug rehab programs.

Since Cameron took office, however, MMT remains the most common type of treatment for heroin addiction in the UK, with admissions to government-sponsored drug rehab facilities at an all-time low of around 4,000. However, even if admissions to drug rehab facilities were to increase, there are less than 2,000 empty beds at moderately priced facilities (~$800 to $1000 per week) and no beds available under the free NHS program.

Critics of the government’s reliance on MMT as an alternative to drug rehab claim that almost 75% of people in treatment in Britain are on Methadone – approximately 150,000 people. Methadone is also responsible for 25% of all deaths due to drug overdose. According to the Independent, the number of inmates who test positive for both prescribed and illicit Methadone has increased dramatically over the last five years.

Since 2003, the UK has doubled it’s yearly spend on Methadone and now pays approximately $1.2 Billion to MMT program operators and Methadone suppliers. In addition, the state pays $2.75 Billion to Methadone users in the form of welfare payments, as well as $2 Billion to help care for their children.