If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨
Vancouver Poised to Launch Free Heroin Trail
Former Member
Posts: 1,875,648 The Mix Honorary Guru
February 1, 2005
Vancouver Poised to Launch Free Heroin Trial
Canadian health officials are hoping that heroin addicts, freed from
their
daily pursuit of the next fix by a prescription-heroin plan, will find
time to make positive changes in their lives.
The Toronto Globe and Mail reported Jan. 31 that researcher will begin
gathering applications for the program from addicts during the next few
weeks. The experiment already is the talk of the streets in communities
like Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
"They should have done this a long time ago," said Debbie Woelke, a
heroin
user living in a single-room occupancy hotel in the city's poorest
neighborhood. "Sometimes you need something just to relax and get your
mind together, instead of always being in a state of panic. That's
what's
killing everyone down here. They have to do things they wouldn't
normally
do."
The prescription heroin trial will take place in Vancouver, Toronto,
and
Montreal. Researchers are looking to recruit 428 hard-core addicts,
half
of whom will receive daily doses of heroin for a year, and half of whom
will get methadone.
"What if you could say to an addict, 'For the next little while, you're
not going to have to get your drugs from Al Capone. You can get your
drugs
from Marcus Welby,' " said Dr. Martin Schechter, lead researcher on the
project. "You don't have to worry about this afternoon and this
evening.
And therefore, you don't have to go and break in to cars or be a
prostitute. You could actually come and talk to a counselor or ... get
some skills training."
The experiment is unique in North America, although similar trials have
been tried with some success in Europe. However, critics range from
those
concerned about lack of abstinence as a goal to those who say it is
unfair
to give addicts free heroin for a year and then cut them off. Overdoses
also are a major ethical worry.
A spokesperson for U.S. drug czar John Walters called the trial an
"inhumane medical experiment.
"What you're doing is making it easier to be a heroin addict," said
policy
analyst David Murray. "These people won't get that much better in the
long
run. They will still be heroin addicts."
But Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, a former coroner and narcotics
officer, said current treatments don't work for hard-core addicts. "The
critical thing is to accept this as a medical condition," he said. "The
side effects of this medical condition is that it forces you to ... do
things that you would never do, be it work as a sex-trade worker, be a
B and E [break-and-enter] artist or a purse snatcher. So if I can
mitigate
that by putting you on heroin, imagine the changes you could
have."
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0%2C1854%2C575837%2C00.html
Wow it seems as though somewhere is stepping into the right direction!
Vancouver Poised to Launch Free Heroin Trial
Canadian health officials are hoping that heroin addicts, freed from
their
daily pursuit of the next fix by a prescription-heroin plan, will find
time to make positive changes in their lives.
The Toronto Globe and Mail reported Jan. 31 that researcher will begin
gathering applications for the program from addicts during the next few
weeks. The experiment already is the talk of the streets in communities
like Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
"They should have done this a long time ago," said Debbie Woelke, a
heroin
user living in a single-room occupancy hotel in the city's poorest
neighborhood. "Sometimes you need something just to relax and get your
mind together, instead of always being in a state of panic. That's
what's
killing everyone down here. They have to do things they wouldn't
normally
do."
The prescription heroin trial will take place in Vancouver, Toronto,
and
Montreal. Researchers are looking to recruit 428 hard-core addicts,
half
of whom will receive daily doses of heroin for a year, and half of whom
will get methadone.
"What if you could say to an addict, 'For the next little while, you're
not going to have to get your drugs from Al Capone. You can get your
drugs
from Marcus Welby,' " said Dr. Martin Schechter, lead researcher on the
project. "You don't have to worry about this afternoon and this
evening.
And therefore, you don't have to go and break in to cars or be a
prostitute. You could actually come and talk to a counselor or ... get
some skills training."
The experiment is unique in North America, although similar trials have
been tried with some success in Europe. However, critics range from
those
concerned about lack of abstinence as a goal to those who say it is
unfair
to give addicts free heroin for a year and then cut them off. Overdoses
also are a major ethical worry.
A spokesperson for U.S. drug czar John Walters called the trial an
"inhumane medical experiment.
"What you're doing is making it easier to be a heroin addict," said
policy
analyst David Murray. "These people won't get that much better in the
long
run. They will still be heroin addicts."
But Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, a former coroner and narcotics
officer, said current treatments don't work for hard-core addicts. "The
critical thing is to accept this as a medical condition," he said. "The
side effects of this medical condition is that it forces you to ... do
things that you would never do, be it work as a sex-trade worker, be a
B and E [break-and-enter] artist or a purse snatcher. So if I can
mitigate
that by putting you on heroin, imagine the changes you could
have."
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0%2C1854%2C575837%2C00.html
Wow it seems as though somewhere is stepping into the right direction!
0
Comments
their biggest export earner is now canadis ...cannabis.
bigger than timber steel engineering etc.
i'll bet anyone of you ...the results are only positive ...100 quid anyone?
You are assuming that these people will want to and will be addicts for that year, you are making sure they will continue using for that year.
I agree that doctors should have wider options when it comes to prescribing, but just dolling out heroin left right and centre isnt the answer.
Plus if you are just maintaining them, is that really what the NHS is for? But, if they arent going to give up then its probably better for them to get the prescription. Its dodgy moral ground really.