Thousands of South African heroin users who want to kick the habit are unable to do so because the potentially lifesaving legal drug methadone – used to wean heroin users off the narcotic – is just too expensive.
Used in opioid substitution treatments (OST), the drug can only be prescribed by a doctor and cannot be dispensed by state hospitals or rehab centres because it is not recognised as an essential medicine. Many medical aids do not cover the costs because addiction is not seen as a disease.
Countrywide there are nearly 1,000 people on such treatments, most within the City of Tshwane which funds a programme that helps 600 people through the University of Pretoria.
A monthly methadone dose costs roughly R980, say narcotics specialists. Other OST drugs, such as suboxone, are almost as expensive. On the streets of Pretoria a heroin pinch [small bag] costs as little as R30.
Academics, researchers and drug treatment experts have labelled the cost of methadone as “criminal”, saying SA’s prices are 30 times higher than international prices.
David Bayever, chairperson of the Central Drug Agency, which advises the government, said there were multiple reasons for methadone’s high price: “It’s a schedule six drug and tightly regulated. Because it’s a very specific drug for a very specific target audience, it’s not necessarily attractive for others to import it.”
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