"Up yours": smuggling illicit drugs into prison.

A significant proportion of patients who are heroin-dependant and receiving treatment in the community serve prison sentences at some point in their lives, meaning their treatment continues "on the inside". Although prison inmates are promised the same quality of care as they would get "on the outside", this is not always the case. Some drawbacks of the drug treatments offered in prisons can lead to people smuggling drugs into prisons. The present work describes how a patient, who is heroin dependant and attending a community drug and alcohol team for methadone maintenance treatment, smuggled methadone and heroin into prison, his reasons for doing that, his personal description of the extent of drug use in prisons and finally what can be done to stop it from treatment and policy perspectives. Drug misuse is common in prisons. Much more can be done at treatment and policy levels to prevent people smuggling drugs into prison.