General Chat

NICE can give shopping vouchers to drug addicts but cannot afford the £2.50 a day for drugs for Alzheimers sufferers. my mum who is now on Arricept but is deteriorating cannot have her £2.50 worth of the next step Ebixa because it isn't cost effective. My mum who worked hard all her life and never inflicted any of her health problems on herself is on the scrap heap! Chris who is outraged

I'm seeing that at my pharmacy these days too, thye just come in and get their 'presrciption', while I'm still stood waiting like a lemon...

Iam an asthmatic, who requires 2 types of inhaler, and tablets, on a daily basis.Because I am fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be able to work ,I pay for each of these medicines. What really, bloody gauls me, however, is having to wait to be served, when some junkie type comes into the pharmacy, is addressed by their first name, and given a drink of this sopposed magic elixer that makes things all right.Am I alone in feeling that this is all wrong?

shopping vouchers for drug addicts! huh!! so they get help cos they inflicted it on them selves! the system in this country stinks! it's all wrong! if you're a druggy or an alcoholic you are helped and get everything! i have been on the sick for 3 years with graves disease [overactive throid] the hospital i was at did nothing to help me get it right,just up and down with my medication,so i changed to another hospital and now i am having radioactive iodine treatment,i had a second dose last week. about 18 mths ago i was told i was fit for work,because i can walk,open a door and answer the phone!! and they stopped my benefit,i appealed,and while i was appealing they gave me £44 to live on!! in the end i had to go on the dole cos i couldn't live on £44,i stopped the appeal cos i couldn't live! i got an extra £12 on the dole,well, it was better than £44. they could see i was'nt fit for work so they put me on restricted hours [so i wouldn't get a job] then i started on my treatment,so i had to claim income support,and that is the same as the dole! the dole told me to apply for it cos they said i was on the wrong bennifit, well, i knew that!! i am hoping this second dose is going to do the trick so i can come of benifits and go back to work. if anyone has ever had this they will know how it makes you feel. so they only help the ones who inflict it on them selves, but if you genuinly sick----forget it!!! right-----i feel better for getting that off my chest! but it does annoy me!

I want to know when I (a smoker) am going to get a place set aside in a public area so that I can indulge my filthy (but still legal) habit away from non smokers, which is what is being proposed for drug addicts in my area. Yes, I know it's outrageous but true!! Maybe when this (or any government) has the guts to actually make tobacco illegal then we smokers will have all the benefits that the drug addicts have at the moment! Just a thought - but I think I can solve the drug crisis!! Make tobacco illegal with penalties for supplying it - say £1000 fine and upto 1 year imprisonment, but for supplying class A drugs £20,000 and 10 years. Which one do you think the pushers will go for! But to answer your original question - definitely no!! :-) Mary

Lisa Well I've paid tax and NI contributions for the last 30 years so I would hope that would entitle me to just £180 worth of patches? I suppose they're hedging their bets - I have been stopped just over a year now and it may prevent me from smoking related illnesses in later years - I agree it may not but they obviously think it's worth it. Debby

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx((((((:

Your steroids probably cost as much as a months worth of patches, and with the higher taxes that smokers pay, there's really no argument. However, I do agree with it being wrong to pay for asthma treatment, it is a life-threatening condition that has to be managed. Diabetics get their prescriptions free, and I really believe asthmatics should too. It's never going to happen while we are paying for shopping vouchers for drug addicts though...

i feel that smokers should pay for there patches...i have to for my steroids for my asthma which i have to pay for every single item wheres the fairness in thatxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx((((:

Well I got patches from my doctors clinic to stop smoking - I only paid the prescription price £6.50 and received a months supply which equated to £66 worth of patches. Must have been a waste of taxpayers money that then? Debby

whooooppppssssss wrong thread lol

i feel that they should not be treated to luxuries like vouchers if they really wanted to get off it programmes are the right way to do it...why should the tax payer have to fork out.....that could be going towards education etc.....they will still be in programmes will be tested etc and get the vouchers so it will cost the taxpayer morexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx))))):

In USA drug addicts and smokers get them - (and probably alcoholics!) It's only £10 - hardly a fortune - 50k will be issued = total spend 500k. They probably use that money in a day treating these addicts. If it gets a handful of addicts off the drugs then surely it has been worth it? Not to mention the crimes that a lot of them commit etc etc Debby

Jolene by dolly Parton ....

i think that they should get no reward. we have to take stock of our lives and be responsible for our actions...like teresa said alcoholics won't get thesexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx))):

Nudge for Lisa... Been trying to get this debate going lol

This government really has lost the plot, and don't forget all of this comes out or your hard earned money which is taken off you in taxes. You can just see it on the news can't you, 'Two shopping vouchers exchange for a fixf'

I agree Peter, it is very open to abuse.

As long as treatment is denied to people who are ill through no fault of their own, this ridiculous idea should be binned. Reg

Exactly TW! Drug addicts get shopping vouchers. Smokers get treated like parihas (sp?) and will soon be banned for partaking of a legal substance in public. I don't even agree with free patches for somkers cos if you smoke 20 a day, it's cheaper to buy patches than cigarettes anyway. Like you say, spend the money on those that deserve it