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.