DETROIT HELPS GET A NEW TREATMENT GOING When history makes a list of the many things that have come from Detroit to benefit the nation, buprenorphine may not be among them. Who cares about making the world a better place for heroin addicts? But just one junkie can devastate a family; heroin traffic can destroy a neighborhood; nasty needles spread disease, including AIDS; desperate addicts lie, cheat and steal to pay for a fix; dealers live high on the misery; taxpayers spend millions in futile efforts to destroy the system. Buprenorphine is the newest weapon in the anti-heroin arsenal. After a two-year struggle, Congress has just passed legislation sponsored by U.S. Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that, with President Bill Clinton's promised signature, will enable certified doctors to begin prescribing it. The drug has been widely and successfully used to treat heroin addiction in France but was viewed skeptically by U.S. drug regulators until research in Detroit proved convincing. Dr. Charles Schuster, former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, was recruited by Wayne State University to run a treatment and research clinic where the drug was tested. A patient from the clinic, thriving on buprenorphine after 14 years of destructive heroin addiction, was among the most persuasive witnesses to testify before Congress. In layman's terms, buprenorphine is a blocker. It satisfies the body's need for heroin but prevents the high. Schuster views it as easier for an addict to manage than participating in a methadone program, which might require periodic visits to a licensed clinic. One of the hopes for buprenorphine is that its availability will encourage more addicts to seek treatment. Passage of the legislation reflects diligence and persistence by Schuster and Levin. Properly dispensed and coupled with drug counseling, buprenorphine can enable an addict to live a fairly normal life while emerging from the nightmare wrought by heroin. Over a period of months, the addict can be weaned. Buprenorphine will never be Detroit's claim to fame. But it has enormous potential to salvage some wretched souls in search of freedom from their self-imposed prison.
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