Canada has just approved prescription heroin

[Tennis]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...iption-heroin/

OTTAWA — The Canadian government has quietly approved new drug regulations that will permit doctors to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade heroin to treat severe addicts who have not responded to more conventional approaches.

The move means that Crosstown, a trail-blazing clinic in Vancouver, will be able to expand its special heroin-maintenance program, in which addicts come in as many as three times a day and receive prescribed injections of legally obtained heroin from a nurse free. The program is the only one of its kind in Canada and the United States but is similar to the approach taken in eight European countries.

The move by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government last week is another step in reversing the policies of the previous government, run by Conservatives, and taking a less draconian approach to the fight against addiction and drug abuse.

In April, the Trudeau government announced plans to legalize the sale of marijuana by next year, and it has appointed a task force to determine how marijuana will be regulated, sold and taxed. The government has also granted a four-year extension to the operation of Insite, a supervised injection site in Vancouver where addicts can shoot up street-obtained drugs in a controlled environment. The previous government had tried in vain for years to shut down that clinic.

[Canadian official slams marijuana policy on U.S. border as ‘ludicrous’]

The latest decision means that any physician in Canada can now apply to Health Canada for access to diacetylmorphine, as pharmaceutical-grade heroin is known, under a special-access program. The government says that this kind of treatment will be available for only a small minority of users “in cases where traditional options have been tried and proven ineffective” and that it is important to give health-care providers a variety of tools to face the opioid-overdose crisis.

Scott MacDonald, the lead physician at the Crosstown Clinic, welcomed the federal government’s decision. The clinic, which is funded by the British Columbia provincial government, opened in 2005 to conduct a clinical trial of prescription heroin and has operated ever since. It provides diacetylmorphine to 52 addicts under a special court-ordered exemption but expects that number to double over the next year if supplies can be obtained. The court order came after a constitutional challenge of a 2013 effort by the previous government to stop distribution of the drug.

Colin Carrie, a Conservative member of Parliament and the party's spokesman on health policy, said his party remains adamantly opposed to the use of prescription heroin as a treatment option for addicts. "Our policy is to take heroin out of the hands of addicts and not put it in their arms."

I'm not sure about this. Would prefer a much more hard line approach. We need to quit beating around the bush when it comes to drugs.

[Independent voter]

That's what I keep telling the junkies in the city, Canada == free heroin!

[Netherspark]

I'm not sure about this. Would prefer a much more hard line approach. We need to quit beating around the bush when it comes to drugs.

And how's that been working out so far?

[Pipebomb]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...iption-heroin/



I'm not sure about this. Would prefer a much more hard line approach. We need to quit beating around the bush when it comes to drugs.

I think it's a better solution. What's your definition of a "hard line approach"? Jail hasn't worked.

It'll keep opiate users away from crime, disease and off the street. Nobody wants to be a heroin addict, drug users are more likely to pursue addiction treatment once they develop trusting relationships with clinic staffers. Also street heroin is being cut with fentanyl recently (the drug that killed Prince) and is exponentially stronger causing hundreds of overdoses and deaths.

http://sciencenordic.com/heroin-clin...-addicts-lives

"A Dutch study from 2005 estimated that providing addicts with prescription heroin could save the state around €13,000 per person per year as a result of reduced costs for crime control, compensations and the like.

A Swiss study showed that heroin clinics remove four percent of the most problematic drug addicts from the street annually."

[artemishunter1]

I think it's a better solution. What's your definition of a "hard line approach"? Jail hasn't worked.

It'll keep opiate users away from crime, disease and off the street. Nobody wants to be a heroin addict, drug users are more likely to pursue addiction treatment once they develop trusting relationships with clinic staffers. Also street heroin is being cut with fentanyl recently (the drug that killed Prince) and is exponentially stronger causing hundreds of overdoses and deaths.

i too agree giving heroine is not a problem. Gov't does not need so much people. If some of them get overdosed, who will miss them? They are already useless. the only issue is someone like einstein or productive people like Bill Gates getting addicted. Such a thing would be loss. But for everyone else we have ASIANS to replace them.

- - - Updated - - -

I think it's a better solution. What's your definition of a "hard line approach"? Jail hasn't worked.

It'll keep opiate users away from crime, disease and off the street. Nobody wants to be a heroin addict, drug users are more likely to pursue addiction treatment once they develop trusting relationships with clinic staffers. Also street heroin is being cut with fentanyl recently (the drug that killed Prince) and is exponentially stronger causing hundreds of overdoses and deaths.

http://sciencenordic.com/heroin-clin...-addicts-lives

"A Dutch study from 2005 estimated that providing addicts with prescription heroin could save the state around €13,000 per person per year as a result of reduced costs for crime control, compensations and the like.

A Swiss study showed that heroin clinics remove four percent of the most problematic drug addicts from the street annually."

Well, killing consumers will work. Just look at Philipine under their president. Their DRUG WAR has Worked.

[Usagi Senshi]

This is a far better solution than having people resort to using Krokodil.

[Pipebomb]

Well, killing consumers will work. Just look at Philipine under their president. Their DRUG WAR has Worked.

Spoken like a true fascist.

[Celista]

Why are they prescribing heroin and not methadone for withdrawal symptoms? It has a prolonged half-life in comparison to heroin. Not that methadone is a perfect solution either, but it makes somewhat more sense than prescribing heroin to addicts.

[Meldetia]

Why are they prescribing heroin and not methadone for withdrawal symptoms? It has a prolonged half-life in comparison to heroin. Not that methadone is a perfect solution either, but it makes somewhat more sense than prescribing heroin to addicts.

I'm assuming from the article they are and this is just for extreme cases.

The Canadian government has quietly approved new drug regulations that will permit doctors to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade heroin to treat severe addicts who have not responded to more conventional approaches.

Edit: - also

MacDonald says his patients are usually long-term users — one has been on heroin for 50 years — for whom standard treatments such as methadone and detox have failed after repeated attempts.

[RAGINGBRODADDY]

ex-meth addict here, also had plenty of heroin users as friends.

the only way to quit heroin (and meth) is to change your environment and stop being surrounded by it. physical addiction isn't real, and removing heroin from the scenario is the only way to get off it. what canada is doing is the exact opposite of what they should do. now heroin will be easier to access and since it's now government approved expect all the out of work addicts to remain out of work forever as they receive their weekly allowance of heroin. there's no reason to work anymore because all their money went to heroin anyway.

the better option would be to decriminalize heroin and sell it in stores. forces addicts to work for their heroin and gets the drug off the streets. but canada is a socialist country and a nanny state so I doubt that could ever happen.

[Celista]

ex-meth addict here, also had plenty of heroin users as friends.

the only way to quit heroin (and meth) is to change your environment and stop being surrounded by it. physical addiction isn't real, and removing heroin from the scenario is the only way to get off it. what canada is doing is the exact opposite of what they should do. now heroin will be easier to access and since it's now government approved expect all the out of work addicts to remain out of work forever as they receive their weekly allowance of heroin. there's no reason to work anymore because all their money went to heroin anyway.

the better option would be to decriminalize heroin and sell it in stores. forces addicts to work for their heroin and gets the drug off the streets. but canada is a socialist country and a nanny state so I doubt that could ever happen.

Physical addiction is real, long-term substance use actually creates new pathways in the brain. That doesn't mean that physical symptoms are impossible to break, they are more or less hard to do depending on genetic factors and length of substance abuse.

You're absolutely right about environment however, interesting article about Vietnam vets and heroin addiction. About 40 percent of Vietnam servicemen had tried heroin, and 20 percent were addicted; only 5 percent became re-addicted after returning to the States. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-...b_6708026.html

- - - Updated - - -

I'm assuming from the article they are and this is just for extreme cases.


Edit: - also

Yeah..I am intrigued as to why methadone hasn't worked for severe cases, however. Pharmacologically, it is my understanding that the two are rather similar.

[Sunseeker]

Methadone sure is working out great. /sarcasm

[Deletedaccount1]

They have been doing this for a long time in Switzerland and it works there.

[Bigbamboozal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...iption-heroin/



I'm not sure about this. Would prefer a much more hard line approach. We need to quit beating around the bush when it comes to drugs.

Look, I usually steer around your shit, but I think you need to let go of your preconceptions that were handed to you and educate yourself a bit.
Try reading this, and some more about it and come back and let's chat.
http://www.brucekalexander.com/artic...-from-rat-park

[Deleted]

Yeah..I am intrigued as to why methadone hasn't worked for severe cases, however. Pharmacologically, it is my understanding that the two are rather similar.

Methadone during a medical treatment supervised by a doctor, has great potential to helpe a heavy dug abuser to quite. The probelm is as a heavy ex-dug abuser is that the person is at the bottom of the social scale, probably has no honest job and only have friends who also abuse drugs.

So many choose to go back to the world of drugs becuse its a world they understand and is socially accepted in.

I have a story about the alcoholics in Stockholm in Sweden. Social welfare ensure they have food and a apartment, and medicinal help is available. But they cant break the abuse becuse they have noting to replace it with. Except during the winter, they They are hired by the city to shoveling snow (you do not get Social welfare if you refuses a job you can do) They love it (or they do not show up) they have a reson to go up on the morning, what they do is very appreciated, they speak to normal peopel, they get payed for for honest work, that give them self-esteem.

But after the winter they are back to unemployment, in "wrong" company and back in the old track....

[Deleted]

This isn't supposed to cure addiction, it's to allow the people capable of changing their environment a way to disable the physical need for a drug.

[announced]

i have no tolerance for heavy drug users like the addicts described above. Raging above makes a good point if addicts had to work for their heroin they would atleast be productive, but then again who wants to hire an addict?
if they end up overdosing it wouldn't be such a bad thing anyway.

[Masark]

but then again who wants to hire an addict?

It's none of the employer's business if they're receiving medical care for an addiction. As a general rule, drug testing for employment is not allowed in Canada.

[TrumpIsPresident]

This isn't supposed to cure addiction, it's to allow the people capable of changing their environment a way to disable the physical need for a drug.

I wonder if there's any limits on how long they'll have to do it or how much tax payer funded smack they can shoot up before they're cut off.

I'm guessing nahhhhhh.

[ParanoiD84]

Good then they don't have to ruin other people's lifes just to get the next fix, and they don't need to commit crimes either like robbery and murder to get their next fix.