How coronavirus is changing how we think about illegal drugs

The debate between prevention or punishment is receiving some ‘new thinking’ that may change the way drugs are bought and used, writes Jon Bloomfield

Philippe Bonnet travels to hotspots around the country with a mobile laboratory to test drug users for hepatitis C (Hepatitis C Trust)

John is a long-term drug user whose life is now stable on prescribed methadone. In late March when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, he remembers standing in a long queue outside the pharmacy waiting to get his prescription. “The pharmacist is also a post office. In other parts of town, they are within convenience stores or with Boots, the pharmacy is part of a big shop. We were stuck in the queue.  I rang the pharmacist to tell him I was outside and he brought my prescription out to me.” 

Neither pharmacists nor policymakers wanted unnecessary queues of drug users at chemists during lockdown.  So in Birmingham, rather than methadone users having to go to the pharmacist every day for their prescription drugs, they were given a two-week prescription which they would have to measure out themselves over the fortnight. Could the drug users cope? Would they use it all up in the first few days? “For most users it made a big difference,” says John.  

Jamie, who runs a charity set up by former drug users like himself to provide advocacy services, agrees. “I was very supportive.  We delivered safe storage boxes to store the methadone to those living in families. Of course, there were problems with some chaotic users, who needed more oversight but for more than 90 per cent it was a positive move. It should continue as the norm.”