ADDICTS TO BE GIVEN FREE HEROIN AS PART OF STUDY INTO SUBSTITUTES

(CNS) - Scientists will supply more than 300 addicts in Montreal and
Vancouver with free heroin as part of a study on effective
substitutes for the highly addictive drug.

The research, which is still being finalized, will test whether the
legal painkiller Dilaudid could be swapped for heroin.

Trish Walsh, executive director of the Inner-Change Foundation, said
Dilaudid -- a prescription painkiller that comes from the same opioid
family as heroin -- was used by addicts in earlier tests, and was
indistinguishable to both the addicts and those running the drug trials.

In the new three-year project, some addicts will be given injectable
Dilaudid while a control group will be given heroin. In the second
stage, addicts will be given Dilaudid or heroin in pill form to
eliminate the need for nurses.