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SUPERVISED HEROIN USE has been found to be of more benefit to chronic and ‘untreatable’ heroin users than any other treatment, a new study has found.
Research by the EU drugs agency found that supervised injectable heroin treatment was more effective than other treatments, including methadone, and led to substantial improvements in the health and well-being of chronic drug users.
Supervised treatment of medicinal heroin, which was first introduced in Switzerland in the 1990s, is legally available in six countries including Germany, Denmark and the UK.
Substitution drugs such as methadone have long been a mainstay of Irish drugs policy towards heroin users.
Under the treatment, supervised injectable medical heroin is delivered under direct medical supervision in specialised clinics in an effort to reduce patients’ use of ‘street’ heroin and involvement in crime.
The report found the treatment can lead to major reductions in drug users’ use of street heroin, major disengagement from criminal activities and marked improvements in how the addicts engaged with society, including a higher employment rate and more stable housing situations.
The report out today looked at the small minority of opioid users who repeatedly fail to respond to substitution drugs such as methadone as a way to be weaned off drug dependence. The findings suggested that supervised use of medicinal heroin can be an effective second-line treatment for the small and previously unresponsive group.
Experts described the development as ‘an important clinical step forward’ in the report out today from the EU drugs agency. The study was the first major overview to look at recent evidence and clinical experience in Europe and internationally.
Senator John Crown said in February that the current Irish drugs policy is not working and heroin in Ireland should be medicalised. The Senator proposed changing the laws around heroin to register addicts and provide them with heroin assisted treatment in a clean environment and under medically supervised circumstances.
“Failing to do something about this problem will not make it go away,” Crown, a consultant oncologist, wrote at the time.
Only one in ten opiate addicts are heroin free and only a handful of them become methadone free. We need to build a system which attracts addicts, helps them get out of crime, reintegrates them into society, and has the resources to help those who want to get clean to get clean.
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A heroin addict stole my aunts phone on Henry Street. He was caught by a security guard from the Jervis Center and spat blood in his face. I personally don’t have any time for the poor chemically enhanced of the city. The place is destroyed with them floating around like zombies.
If that heroin addict was prescribed heroin then he wouldn’t have to resort to crime.
Two-thirds of crime in Dublin is linked to the heroin trade, think of all the lives and the money that would be saved if heroin was on prescription, from reduced crime levels, fewer heroin deaths, fewer gangland killings, reduced social spending, more room in our prisons for REAL prisons.
And I have huge sympathy for heroin addicts, it’s not a life that anyone would ever choose. The drug itself isn’t evil either, but the lifestyle is cruel. Heroin doesn’t make you violent or immoral but the addictive nature of the drug combined with its illegality is what makes some addicts do terrible things.
And the first stone has been cast.
It was their own choice to try heroin knowing that it is a cruel and violently addictive drug. They did this knowing how it had previously affected others before them. “Oh look that man stuck his hand in the fire, now I’m going too try it and see what happens”…No sympathy for them just the taxpayers who have to fund their “Helping Hand Heroin” treatment.
For anyone who has a genuine interest in this area particularly in rehabilitation, I would encourage you to watch this talk by Dr Gabor Mate, a Canadian physician at the Portland Hotel, who works with heroin addicts in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. For others who might be quick to pass judgement on these people, perhaps it would help if you learned something about their backgrounds first and why they develop these addictions.
agent, your simplistic approach highlights your simplistic mind.
People r very quick 2 put d DRUG ADDICT LABEL on someone who commits every crime out der but der not ALL drug addicts.I dont agree with wat happened 2 ur aunt and 4 someone 2 spit in2 anyones face is digusting but how do u no dat d person who took ur aunts phone was a DRUG ADDICT??????
Will this make a difference to the country’s treatment of heroin addicts? Probably not considering methadone was proven to be an ineffective method of treatment decades ago. The whole point of methadone’s existence is political – prescribing heroin to long-term addicts would provoke outrage in our narrow-minded society and the liquid handcuffs are a much more socially-acceptable alternative.
I’ve lived in Dublin city centre for a long time and nothing has improved on the drugs front. The reason heroin addicts are in such bad shape is the heroin they take has so much crap in it. Why not just give them good heroin. Probably stop quite a few robberies too. Can’t imagine many politicians trying to do it though.
It saves the taxpayer a fortune and it cuts crime. It also reduces the no. of addict long term as they are more readily accessible to treatment. Cuts disease so hospitals are dealing with some poor junkie with aids or Hepatitis taking a bed long term.
Average age of a Junkie in Holland is 45, here it is in early 20′s. They are doing the above because they want to make the Heroin problem as small as possible. We want to moralize so we’ll let it grow.
It works so lets do it
Huh? Is talking sense allowed on the journal?
I saw a documentary on the use in bern in Switzerland and crime was significantly cut. It does make sense, the majority of crime by the junkies is to feed their habit. Also they sell it on the quays just to get enough to afford a few bags themselves. The thing is tho the whole social aspect of it, most of the users come from disadvantaged areas so straight off poverty is there. So maybe crime is a way of life, not just because your a addict ( and for the pc brigade not all people from these areas are criminals, i have family from there!!) The addicts in bern where all actually from middle class to wealthy suburbs and also crime in bern was relatively low before the introduction of this. I’d be for anything to help the plague of heroin but I don’t know about this
We must try and help people who are on drugs. No body in their right minds wants to be addicted to either alchol or drugs.
Exactly. Some people think addiction us a lifestyle choice but if that was the case why is heroin addiction not widespread amongst all social classes?
Ireland’s heroin problem is just as much a social problem as anything else and we now have second-generation addicts. Heroin addicts have been totally neglected by the state and are treated like lepers in our society. It is more than the drug, it’s about growing up in a disadvantaged area with an unstable upbringing where heroin addiction is rife, possibly having addict parents, having no incentive to get an education and no employment opportunities. Some addicts are 13, 14 and 15 years of age, addicted before they’re even mentally developed. There are whole generations addicted to heroin in certain parts of Dublin and making their addiction a crime destroys any chances they have of making a life for themselves. Do you really have no sympathy for their plight?
@ Abby, you seem to have an agenda here, have you got something you’re not disclosing?
There are actually third generation heroin users now! Michael criminalising drug use clearly hasn’t worked so maybe you should open your mind and consider what Abby is saying.
@abbey
So you have never been threatened by a junkie with a needle full of blood? I have, and let me tell you, I wasn’t too interested in his social background at the time
Of course addiction is a choice! What a stupid thing to say – we’re they forced to take WELL KNOWN for its destructive impact drug?!
‘addiction is a choice’ says dublin city …. oxymoron of the year :)
gerard , emotional reasoning usually gets us nowhere,safer to stick with logic. ie. if heroin wasnt illegal or it was medicalised that incident probably wouldn’t have happened.
@michael hayes agenda? where are you pulling that from?
@dublin city. Where you always a moron or is it just the way your sitting….addiction a choice???? If it was then surely you could choose just to stop it…..
I can totally understand that Gerard but if that heroin addict was part of a program where he could use heroin under medical supervision he may not have jabbed that needle full of blood in your face. It must have been a horrific experience for you though.
When Methadone was first introduced as the answer to street heroin use They the experts said the same about it as the article above.
“narrow minded society”? Would you give an alcoholic alcohol? or bring someone with a gambling addiction to a casino?
Yeah cos alcohol and gambling are exactly the same as heroin. You should write a paper.
Heroin is different to most drugs in that it is physically addictive and very easy to live a normal and healthy life if it’s in constant supply. Complications only arise from adulterants in street heroin and dangerous methods of administering the drug, i.e. using shared or dirty needles.
No heroin is ten times worse! What’s your big idea then Padraig?
Abby I’d find it hard to believe they can live a normal life but that’s probably because seeing the state of them everyday will do that.
It’s not the heroin that causes most of the problems, it’s the grubby conditions they are using it in.
We’re discussing some of the most damaged people in society. The majority if not all of these individuals have experienced dreadful domestic and institutional abuse as young children, many were themselves the children of alcoholics or drug addicts, leading to profound developmental problems, chaotic and self destructive adult lives. They self abuse, they self medicate with harmful substances – IV drug users are at high risk of contracting HIV Hepatitis B which kills many of them at a young age, those that don’t accidentally overdose or kill themselves first.
If society treats these people with contempt, how do we expect them to respond, how would you respond? Does it make any logical sense to criminalise them for what is a physiological addiction over which they have no control, throw them in prison with other addicts then become outraged when they emerge and continue reoffend, lie, beg and steal to feed these addictions – the revolving door syndrome – until they are eventually they are found dead somewhere, another statistic, no longer considered a problem.
It’s not good enough for society to brush these people under the carpet, wash its hands of them, they are the product of our society, of our communities of our institutions and, as a society, we have a responsibility towards them. There has to be new thinking, more enlightened, compassionate ways of supporting drug addicts to break the addictive cycle, allowing them to regain some sense of dignity, some sense of self worth, some stability in their lives, affording them the opportunity to contribute to society. If any real progress is to be made however there must be appreciation of the complex nature of these addictions and less of a rush to make simplistic, ill informed judgments which are counterproductive.
Is it presumptuous of me to assume all you contributors who refer to “junkies” and probably spit afterwards , have no children yet, no younger brothers or sisters, or know exactly where your kids and family are every minuite of the day, sure you guys will be fine, there will be no auld junkies in your families,
No, its not presumptuous in the least bit. Some of these guys are as pure as the driven snow. They fart Chanel and shit Tiffany cufflinks. They have no bad habits, no predilections, in fact they are perfect in every way. Their lives are perfect, their kids are saints and all their friends are so squeaky clean that they could disinfect a room just by walking into it.
Collectively snug, or is it smug, as a bugs in a rug. Insulated, safe and warm, aloof and elevated well above the vagaries of the common man. I’m just so very glad we have such well informed and insightful individuals in our midst to tell us all where the bears shit in the buckwheat, to borrow a phrase.
Thanks for that The Burning Bush, I’ve just fell around laughing at your comment. So true too. Thanks for making me laugh.
Pleasure Ian, I’m glad you found it funny as opposed to offensive.
Sterilize all junkies.
maybe we should sterilise you peter…… from alot of the comments here its easy to see why ireland is one of the most backward european countries
The way I look at this is not what is best for the junkie but what is best for the average everyday member of society, going about their business.
And I believe this would be of benefit if it reduces incidents of robbery from people, burglaries and junkies begging etc. So in that regard I think it would be a good system
Though you are right – this isn’t a solution to the problem , it’s just postponing it. Expensive one as well. If I become sick, and I mean with something I’ll have to live for the rest of my life – taxpayer doesn’t take my bill. Why should it take theirs?
Treating money losing banks with more money works too…oh wait..
Change the record FFS.
I think this would be the key to it’s success “…supervised injectable …”.
They are nothing but scum for keeping drug dealers in business
john you have a lot it learn, thats even if your capable, which i doubt
Hey der John u really havent got a clue wat ur talking about its a hard but messed up life and i no people dont choose 2 get der self in2 d position dat dey get in2 but it happens SADLY.I just want 2 say something 2 anyone who thinks like dis so called human being ( DAT NO-ONE NO’S HOW LIFE WILL PLAN OUT 4 DEM AS DEY MAY HVE BROTHERS AND SISTERS R COULD B RAREING ONEDAY DEMSELVES AND U DONT NO WATS AROUND D CORNER 4 U ) THINK B4 U SPEAK!!!!!!
So basically give the junkie free heroin? And when they get their free heroin they go out and Steal some more to get even more heroin, then the cycle begins again the next day until they die? It sounds harsh I know but unfortunately, from experience this is how I see this whole idea panning out in our society.
Why not, the government sanction and raise revenue from the sale of alcohol and nicotine. Those particular substances kill millions, cost millions and fill government coffers with millions, but thats just a-ok, its all legal and above board and as such there cannot possibly any problems with that.
Well said Abbey.
I’m sorry but most of them are vile and they’d rob you as quick as look at you. have you been through Dublin city and seen then all. my sister was held up a few years ago by one of them scummers with a filled syringe of blood and he walked out of court and done the same to an old lady a few days later. I’m all for helping the ones who want to be helped but the ones who play victims and don’t bother their holes to get any help but go out on the rob should be brought to the little islands off the coast and let them fend for them selves
Just a theory, but what if you offered heroin addicts free clean heroin , as long as they remained in a home(away from the the public) for a period of time and gradually water down the drug (with out them knowing of course) along with education on the benifets of not being a heroin head, until they are some bit clean and have a clear vision…im open to critisem.
Eh Gerard, they dont need to go out and steal to get free heroin because they are getting free heroin. Best to decriminalise drugs and help these people. Cheaper in the long run medically and also from the criminal aspect. I read before that in Manchester a stolen car stereo or mobile phone along with the price of a street walker was exactly the price of one dose of heroin. Heroin price sets the market for criminal activity. Free administration to addicts will be cheaper in the end.
Say for example we don’t care about any individual addicts welfare, not even in the slightest.
It would still make sense to look after them because the overall harm to society would be minimised. And it wouldn’t be unfair to the addict either.
Who knows, after a time they might express a desire to get off the stuff, then a could have a more conductive engagement.
The lowering of crime argument is stronger than any ethical consideration imho.
*real criminals.
abbey I know people that are on heroin that are from very good backgrounds. so no its not just disadvantaged people from the council estates and so on . have you ever been standing on the quays waiting for a bus (before they changed the routes) and see them fukers selling there gear openly on the street. sticking their hands down their pants to get their stash . or had one puking blood all over your feet in town
People make mistakes. I certainly did as a teenager and after, but was just lucky that heroin wasn’t among the mistakes. If this study is replicated and proves reliable, we should do ourselves and these fellow humans a big favour and implement the idea.
Interesting documentary. What happens at the end of it is what I would think they are advocating in the report.
Not every heroin user was in an abusive home wen dey were bn rared I no alot of peeople who come from d most lovely families and fell in 2 a bad situation but hve come out d other end by taking methadone 4 a while and hve great jobs and great lives and hve der own children but dey would never look down der nose at anyone who has r had a drug problem.I really love 2 see people coming on with der lives. Its hard enough for dem out der who r still drug addicts and its very sad!!!!!!!! I dont think anyone has a magic wand 2 solve dis HUGE problem but i wish dey had!!!!!
Cure for addicts don’t take heroin. Everyone knows where it leads so no one can plead ignorance. If your a junkie then you put yourself there no one stuck the needle in your arm but yourself
peter you should be in the government, i hear they are clueless too.
On the surface, Peter that makes sense, but if you have been used as a sexual plaything by your parents to pay for heroin, and loaned out to their “friends”, to pay for drugs and you then end up taking heroin to kill the pain of what was done to you, by your parents, and you end up taking heroin yourself, then you are in a realm of existence that I cannot and will not judge.
have your say