Germany planning "heroin therapy" for some addicts

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Germany planning "heroin therapy" for some addicts

A Bulgarian customs officer tests packages of seized heroin in a 2002 file photo. The German...
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BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government is planning to supply long-term drug addicts with controlled amounts of free heroin to "improve their health," the government's commissioner for substance abuse Sabine Baetzing said on Monday.

"A heroin therapy is the last hope and provides help for survival for some of those who are addicted," Baetzing said in an interview to appear in Tuesday's Die Welt newspaper. "It can improve their health and stabilize their social situation."

Baetzing, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats, said she was confident the conservative Christian Democrats, who lead their grand coalition government, would agree to back the plan to give between 1,000 and 1,500 addicts taxpayer-funded heroin.

Baetzing said that pilot projects in seven German cities had shown that giving controlled amounts of heroin to long-term addicts had a higher success rate than using methadone.