Part of Drugs Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:30 pm on 1 February 2005.
I am not suggesting that there is a problem, but lots of people do. Statistics are collated not through testing, but based on voluntary information provided by the person on arrest. It is already possible to do an analysis over a period of time to see whether there is a trend. In my own area, there is no trend of an increase in methadone diversion. However, with officially prescribed substitute drugs—both buprenorphine and methadone—it would be useful to have such testing available both as evidence of the effectiveness of the drugs treatment and for the NHS and others to be able to see who is diverting and on what basis. Not to have such powers is rather a weakness, albeit a small one, in our system. Consideration ought to be given to it and, in particular, legislation should not debar.