Drug addicts in Dundee have claimed a lack of support from NHS Tayside is killing users.
A group of drug users protested outside Tayside Substance Misuse Centre on Constitution Road on Wednesday, unveiling a banner accusing NHS Tayside of having “blood on its hands” over its treatment of addicts.
Also scrawled on the sheet was: “Human rights for drug addicts. Fifteen deaths this month. How many more?
“How many more funerals? Not putting up with it no more.”
Alexander Whyte, 40, said service users regularly have their prescriptions for the heroin substitute methadone stopped, which forces them to buy “street” heroin instead.
Mr Whyte said: “People are getting cut off methadone, going back to street drugs and dying.
“There’s about five or six people in the same position.
“They just make you jump through hoops to get a prescription. They make you do toxicology tests.
“You’re just trying to keep things normal but you’re not going to be able to keep things stable if you can’t get your prescription.”
The protesters said a number of people had taken their own lives because of a lack of help from NHS Tayside.
Danny Blake, 39, said: “I’ve been off my methadone for two days now.
“I’m taking a stand against them. But nobody wants to say anything because they don’t want cut off.
“I’m not getting any help.
“I know off two guys who have Superman-ed out a multi and one other who has hung himself.”
A spokesman for Police Scotland’s Tayside Division said they had been advised of the protest by staff within the centre but there had been no trouble from the protesters.
A spokesperson for Dundee Health & Social Care Partnership said it aimed to treat people accessing services “fairly” and with “dignity and respect.”
The spokesperson said: “We encourage anyone with concerns about their treatment to contact our feedback and complaints team.
“Refusal to give a methadone prescription would never be made easily and would be only after several attempts to minimise the risk to that individual have been unsuccessful and where the risk of death of combining prescribed controlled drugs with illicit drug continued or if the individual stopped taking their methadone.
“It would be rare that anyone would be banned from our services. However where criminal activity or violence and aggression to staff or other individuals was to occur this would need to be considered when reviewing treatment.”
