COUGH DRUG HELPS ADDICTS MORE THAN METHADONE, STUDY FINDS

VANCOUVER- A commonly prescribed drug used in cough medicine is more
effective than methadone -- and as effective as heroin itself -- at
stabilizing the lives of heroin addicts and reducing their use of
street drugs, a new study says.

Since March 2007, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative has
been prescribing 115 addicts in Vancouver and Montreal with
medical-grade heroin to see if they would fare any better than a
control group of 111 on methadone.

The results, released yesterday, concluded addicts on heroin stuck
with treatment longer and had more success than the methadone group.

What was surprising, however, is that a smaller group of 25 addicts
given Dilaudid -- a legal drug used as a painkiller and cough
suppressant -- fared just as well as those on heroin.

It was such a convincing substitute that all but one of those on
Dilaudid thought they were on heroin.

While giving addicts free heroin would require political
stickhandling, Dilaudid is simply an off-label use of a legal drug.

"There is a stigma attached to heroin," said lead investigator Dr.
Martin Schechter. "That would make (Dilaudid) particularly attractive
in places where the concept of using heroin would be untenable as a
public policy."