HEROIN HELPS ADDICTS IN RECOVERY: STUDY

More Effective Than Methadone. 251 Montreal, Vancouver Drug Users Monitored

A Canadian study that found giving heroin to hard-core drug addicts
at a supervised clinic leads to a higher rate of recovery than giving
them methadone was published yesterday in the prestigious New England
Journal of Medicine.

The study, titled North American Opiate Medication Initiative,
studied whether heroin-assisted therapy benefits people who suffer
from opiate addictions. The study was released in October 2008, but
was not published until yesterday.

The NAOMI report concluded that injecting addicts with
diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient in heroin, was more effective
than oral methadone.

Scientists monitored 251 drug addicts in Montreal and Vancouver, the
two cities with the largest heroin-addicted populations in Canada.
The participants got drugs for 12 months under the supervision of
nurses, doctors, psychiatrists and social workers. During the trial,
115 addicts received the medical heroin, 111 received methadone and
25 received hydromorphone - a licensed opiate for pain relief -
starting in March 2007.

The study found that those on the diacetylmorphine had an 88-per-cent
better chance of kicking the habit, compared with 54 per cent in the
methadone group. Further, the reduction in rates of illicit-drug use
or other illegal activity was 67 per cent in the diacetylmorphine
group and nearly 48 per cent in the methadone group.

Dr. Martin Schechter, one of the lead researchers of the study, said
the publication of their work "feels like a vindication" of the
criticism the study has received. One such criticism was speculation
that addicts may report false results to increase their chance of
more free drugs in the future.

"The New England Journal of Medicine is one of the most prestigious
journals in the world and it's a validation of the quality of the
scientific work we have done," he said. "It puts the best seal of
approval on a study and that does have an effect on policy-makers."

Following NAOMI, a further study was announced in June called SALOME
- - Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness.
Schecter, who will be also involved in that study, said they are
currently trying to secure funding for the project. The SALOME will
give more than 200 addicts in Montreal and Vancouver heroin treatment
in pill and injectable forms.

With the new study, scientists hope to prove that hydromorphone is
just as effective as prescribing heroin to treat addicts. Schechter
said the addicts given the hydromorphone could not tell the
difference from heroin.

"It would be effective where heroin is a non-starter because of
political reasons, for example (in) the United States where they
would use a licensed opiate for pain," he said. "If we could prove
this, then it could be licensed for addiction."

In the editorial in yesterday's Journal, Virginia Berridge says the
findings of the Canadian study are widely supported in Europe but
have not been in the United States. The Australian government
discontinued a heroin trial in the 1990s.

"The results of this trial may be added to those from Germany, the
Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland," Berridge said. "Switzerland has
10 years of experience in the prescription of heroin, and in a
November 2008 referendum, 68 per cent of voters were in favour of its
continued prescription."

Meantime, the Harper government opposes Insite, a Vancouver-based
facility that allows drug users to inject heroin and cocaine under
medical supervision, and is embroiled in a legal battle to shut it down.