Administering Heroin to Treat Heroin Addiction

- article by Khoi Nguyen

Doctors are giving heroin to heroin addicts as part of an addiction treatment program.  That might sound counter intuitive and is something you thought you probably would never read, but a four-year trial recently concluded in which longtime addicts were given daily shots of heroin in an effort to get them off the drug.  The results of the controversial trial are surprisingly positive.

The Trial

Britain is one of the few countries which permitted doctors to prescribe heroin for treatment.  However, they slowed down this practice in the 1980s due to fears of patients selling their heroin in the black market.  The solution came from researchers in Switzerland.  They suggested the idea of setting up clinics in order to provide treatment with medical supervision. 

The trial was partially state-funded and led by the National Addiction Centre and King’s Health Partners in London.  It was conducted in the cities of London, Darlington, and Brighton and included 127 participants who were placed in three groups.  The groups were each given heroin, intravenous methadone, and oral methadone, respectively.  In addition, they all received much-needed counseling and social services from the clinics.

During the research, patients ingested methadone or were injected with heroin or methadone in a safe, stable environment at medically supervised clinics.  This was paired with crucial counseling and addiction treatment.  According to John Strang, who led the research team, the bond between patient and staff is “far greater than you would ever ordinarily see”. 

The cost is relatively expensive at about $22,000 per patient each year.  However, it costs about three times that number to keep a person in prison.

Britain Trial Results

The trial was largely a success, as evidenced by the following results:

•    All three groups showed improved physical and mental health.
•    The heroin injection group showed the most improvements.
•    75% of all the participants discontinued use of street heroin after half a year.
•    The number of crimes committed by the participants dropped by a large margin.  They had cumulatively committed 1,700 crimes in the 30 days before the program began.  In the first six months of the trial, the number dropped to 547.
•    Researchers reported that the benefits of the treatment could be seen in just six weeks.

Future Possibilities

Today in Switzerland, there are 23 clinics that treat approximately 2,200 addicts.  They typically stay for three years.  This is a fantastic result when we consider that heroin users average 15 years of usage.  After an initial public backlash, 68% of Swiss citizens backed a referendum to keep the clinics permanently funded by the state.

Following the lead of Switzerland, Britain could be the second country in Europe to institutionalize the program.  The most addicted heroin users in Britain would be able to receive treatment from permanent, state-funded heroin clinics.  Proponents fear that this program could send the wrong treatment message to addicts and could lead to others in which cocaine is given to cocaine addicts and alcohol given to alcoholics.