PRESCRIPTION HEROIN PILOT PROJECT

VANCOUVER - Heroin prescriptions could soon be given to Vancouver drug
addicts, as part of a pilot project that's still waiting for approval from
Health Canada.

A team of doctors would be allowed to prescribe heroin for a select group
of addicts, and then study them.

B.C.'s medical health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall says prescription heroin
would be safer and cleaner than the street drugs addicts now inject.

He also points to a Dutch pilot project which showed that when addicts know
they're going to get their fix, they stopped their criminal activity.

"I think we'd be stupid, quite frankly, not to try it in Canada as a
clinical trial to see if we could get the same benefits in Canada," he says.

Dr. Kendall says the big problem is that politicians are afraid to be seen
to be soft on drugs.

Millions of dollars have been set aside for the program in Vancouver,
Montreal and Toronto. The doctors say final approval could come within six
months.

More than 300 people die of drug every year overdoses in Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside.