EXPERIMENTING WITH HEROIN

The View From Vancouver

Instead of prostituting themselves or breaking into homes and cars,
some heroin addicts will soon be able to attend a clinic, where, as a
result of a bold experiment, they will be provided with free heroin.

Needless to say, the study is controversial and researchers will have
to iron out a few ethical problems. But it is worthwhile all the same.

The study, part of the North American Opiate Medication Initiatives,
will begin in Vancouver and then expand to Toronto and Montreal. It is
aimed at determining whether a combination of heroin and methadone is
a better treatment for hard-core addicts who don't respond to
methadone-only therapies.

Similar experiments in Europe found that a significant percentage of
addicts receiving heroin improved their health and the quality of
their lives. Many entered abstinence programs, some found employment
and there was a drastic reduction in criminal activity.

In fact, a Swiss experiment was so successful that Swiss voters chose,
in two referendums, to continue heroin maintenance as part of a
permanent program.

That's not to say that all heroin users ended their addictions once
and for all, nor that all obtained gainful employment. But heroin
maintenance did prove to be beneficial for both the hard-core addicts
and for society, which saw drug-related crime and health care costs
reduced.

It's possible the results of the North American initiative won't
mirror those of the European experiment. The results might well reveal
that methadone maintenance without heroin is the best form of therapy,
even for addicts most resistant to treatment.

But there is no way of knowing what treatment is most effective unless
we complete the study -- and that, alone, is reason enough to test a
potentially efficacious new therapy.