NEW HEROIN GIVEAWAY PROJECT GEARS UP FOR RIGGED GAME

SALOME chief will copy Insite's 'research' model in Downtown
Eastside

Have you heard? We're giving out more free heroin.

The Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness, also
known as SALOME, got the green light from Health Canada to import and
distribute pharmaceutical heroin to addicts in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside.

A follow-up to the similar sounding NAOMI trials, which earlier in the
decade tested medically prescribed heroin on addicts, SALOME will
measure the effectiveness of heroin and dilaudid in treating heroin
addiction.

During the four-year study, 322 addicts will receive daily doses of
either heroin or dilaudid, a narcotic used to relieve severe pain.
Depending on the study phase, the drugs will be injected or taken in
pill form, and participating addicts are not required to seek
treatment or counselling. (Why spoil a good study, right?)

According to SALOME philosophy, users of prescribed dope will enjoy
healthier and more productive lives, and if adopted by the recovery
community, the concept may eventually "lessen the social and health
costs associated with addiction." SALOME will cost $8 million, split
evenly between taxpayers and private donors.

According to Trish Walsh, executive director of InnerChange, SALOME's
private fundraising wing, the study potentially carries global
implications. "This could revolutionize addiction treatment throughout
the world," she said during a recent phone interview. "This is a
landmark study."

Organizers have yet to compile a short-list of potential downtown
sites, says Walsh, and she's not sure when the study will begin. She
admits that pharmaceutical heroin is more potent than what's typically
purchased on the street, but couldn't answer other basic questions
about SALOME. (Who will work at the site? How is the heroin imported
and prepared for addicts? How do organizers recruit addicts?)

For answers to those questions, Walsh repeatedly referred me to Dr.
Michael Krausz--addictions expert at St. Paul's Hospital and main
brain behind SALOME--who promptly ignored several interview requests.

Which isn't surprising considering SALOME's many wrongs.

Rather than nurturing an addict's desire to kick heroin, SALOME
provides a sanitized environment of government enablement. Any
"research" gleaned from SALOME will reflect the addict's gratitude for
his free daily fix of high-octane drugs, and in all probability, most
participants will use street heroin at similar rates during and after
the trial. And so on.

Another question for Dr. Krausz: What happens if SALOME, after four years of
drug dealing, fails to benefit Downtown Eastside addicts?

To ask that question is to answer it. This study will never
fail.

In the high stakes world of radical harm reduction, where government
grants provide vital lifeblood, defeat is not an option. Outcomes are
managed. Reputations saved.

Over the next four years, we'll see favourable progress reports from
SALOME researchers arguing for SALOME-style "treatment" in perpetuity.

Bet on it.

You can also bet that many of SALOME's 322 addicts will have
frequented Insite, our friendly neighbourhood supervised injection
site at 139 East Hastings St.

If he's smart, and we know he is, Krausz and his cronies will copy the
Insite research model crafted by prodigious UBC researcher Thomas Kerr.

To justify Insite's existence, Kerr compiled dozens of studies
praising Insite's role in the Downtown Eastside, thus fulfilling the
prophecies he made before his organization, the B.C. Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS, received $1.5 million from the province
to--you guessed it--study Insite's effectiveness in treating addiction.

During an interview last July, when I dared note this glaring conflict
of interest, Kerr threatened me with legal action.

Thanks to the feeble inquiries of a flaccid media and the
disinterested glances from a public weary of Downtown Eastside news,
folks like Kerr and Krausz essentially create public policy outside
the bounds of democratic accountability.

According to Trish Walsh of InnerChange, her organization will next
target cocaine addicts. "After SALOME is up and running, we'll be
looking at a study for stimulants."

A report posted on the InnerChange website offers a chilling glimpse
of the future.

In arguing for a SALOME-style cocaine study, the report claims
"offering cocaine misusers a legitimate role in society, as medical
patients rather than criminals, could reduce the harm arising from
chronic alienation." Citing research gleaned from coke addicts, the
report notes "most users report substantial transient benefits of
cocaine use--including increased energy and self-confidence--and
little difficulty with side effects."