Interesting study in the New England Journal of Medicine supporting prescription heroin.
The problem heroin can solve
A major new study says giving heroin to addicts could solve the problems that methadone can’t. Jeff Deeney talks to heroin users and doctors about prescription dope’s potential high.
Why can’t America seem to kick its heroin habit? According to a new study, it might be because we’re not giving addicts exactly what they want: heroin, in pure, prescription form.
Reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, the study provided either methadone or prescription heroin to a group of addicts who used heroin daily. Six months later, more than two-thirds of the participants who had been given prescription heroin were staying off the street version of the drug. Less than a third of the methadone group had the same success. The idea of such “heroin maintenance” programs, in which hardcore drug addicts are provided free pharmaceutical-grade heroin that they can legally inject at safe, medically staffed clinics, is gaining supporters from all corners: medical professionals, drug-policy experts, and perhaps not surprisingly, addicts themselves.” …
Click here to read the full article.
Give drugs to the druggies? Now why wasn’t that thought of before. I’m sure that will help them support their children. hold real jobs and become model citizens. Doesn’t Holland do that?
Editor’s note:
From: http://www.DrugWarFacts.org: Heroin Assisted Treatment/Heroin Maintenance
1. “We have shown that treatment with supervised injectable heroin leads to significantly lower use of street heroin than does supervised injectable methadone or optimised oral methadone. Furthermore, this difference was evident within the first 6 weeks of treatment.
“This randomised controlled trial of treatment with supervised injectable opiates builds on the findings of five randomised trials of supervised injectable heroin versus oral methadone.”
Source:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2960…
2. “Heroin prescription is a form of medical care that involves strictly regulated and controlled prescription of heroin. Offered on its own or as a complement to treatment programs, it is often targeted for use by people for whom opioid substitution treatment and other programs have not succeeded.”
“Findings show such programs are feasible and are associated with a number of positive outcomes,12 including:
Health benefits:
• helping people to stop or reduce their illegal drug use;13
• avoiding illness and death as a result of overdose by ensuring access to a drug of known quality and strength;14
• retention in medical care;15
• facilitating a gradual change from heroin to opioid substitution therapy;16
• reducing the risk of HIV and hepatitis resulting from unsafe injection practices;17 and
• promoting general health and well-being.18
Social benefits:
• reducing crime related to the acquisition of drugs;19
• reducing the number or visibility of drug markets and public drug use;
• lowering costs associated with health care, social welfare, criminal justice and prisons;20 and
• promoting social integration, including with respect to employment, accommodation and family life.21”
Source:
http://www.aidslaw.ca/publications/interfaces/downloadFile.php?ref=875