ADDICTS TO GET FREE HEROIN

(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 InnerChange 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 -- dubbed Study to Assess Longer-term
Opioid Medication Effectiveness -- 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.

"We have the potential to revolutionize treatment on an international
basis," said Walsh, whose organization advocates for addicts and
funds innovative drug research.

"It gives addicts the opportunity to move from a very unsafe,
back-alley drug to taking an oral tablet."

Dr. Martin Schechter of the University of B.C. said the Canadian
Institute of Health Research has agreed to fund the research costs
for the study.

He said the researchers are still waiting on Vancouver Coastal Health
and the Quebec Ministry of Health to fund the clinical care costs of the study.

Schechter, who works in UBC's School of Population and Public Health,
said the study will give heroin to half the 322 addicts, while the
other half will receive Dilaudid.

Should Dilaudid prove effective, Schechter said the ideal solution
would be to treat addicts with Dilaudid in pill form, allowing them
to live productive lives free of the social stigma of heroin.