Denmark - Prescribed heroin become reality

[ThirdEyeFloond]

Here is a quick translation of a danish news article from today, I'm not sure if this is the right forum so please move as you see fit. It's good news in my opinion and it will hopefully have a positive effect on the lives of the addicts aswell as lower burglary rates etc.

Doctor prescriped heroin become reality

A broad political majority sets aside 70 million DKR of rate funding pools for experimenting with prescribed [heroin] for the hardest strained addicts in 2008 and 2009.

Fifteen years of discussion and tug-of-war about prescribed heroin is over.

All of the parlament parties besides Enhedslisten today agreed upon to allocate money to prescribed heroin for addicts. The municipalities gets ten million in 2008 to prepare the agreement and 60 million DKR to implement the agreement in 2009.

Venstre [a rightwing government party] has shifted views.
The debate on prescribed heroin has been going on for the last 15 years and untill the election campaign was started Venstre's official position was that they were against it.

But during the election campaign former minister of health Lars Løkke Rasmussen made, what was called one the election campaigns 'U-turns' when he promised that prescribed heroin would become a reality.

The committee for socially vulnerable: A success
Several have speculated if the prescribed heroin would end up as a broken election promise but with todays announcement all speculation can be ceased.

And for this, the chairman for the committee for socially vulnerable and long-time proponent for prescribed heroin, Preben Brandt is glad.

"I have no doubt at all that it will be a success", he says to TV2 News.

source: http://politiken.dk/indland/article475676.ece [in danish]

Reputation Comments on this post:

nice post about prescribed heroin

[truth]

once this does really work, it will help change minds across the globe. imo

[Paracelsus]

Although nowadays Danish politics hardly seem liberal anymore, at least the Danish government seems open to science and reason in this particular issue.

Experimenting is not enough, however. Once the experiments end, appropriate legislative changes have to be made. If this doesn't happen, the study participants who started to get their lives together, will be cut off from the prescribed heroin and forced to their old lives again. This happened in Germany when their prescribed heroin study ended in December 2006.

EDIT: found the online version of an article that I read some time ago, about above-mentioned situation in Germany: http://www.hinzundkunzt.de/hk/strassenmagazin/ausgabe/stadtgespraech/~article~751/
It was published in Hinz & Kunzt, a German magazine about homeless and distributed by homeless, so it offers an "insider" perspective (in German).

[ThirdEyeFloond]

It is somewhat surprising that the politicians have listened to reason in this case, it's a mad world. I do hope it will be a permanent solution so the involved won't get caught up in between and we don't get a scenario like in Germany. Fingers crossed that this will work out well and maybe serve as inspiration to other parts of the world if it becomes the success it hopefully will be.

Reputation Comments on this post:

For the PLoS Antidepressant Meta-Analysis

[ThirdEyeFloond]

Here's a translation of a news article from a few days ago.

Communes say no to heroin.

The governments decision about giving free heroin to drugabusers is met with resistance in several communes.

In Aalborg the politicians say no to the plan and in Århus both the politicians and substance abuse experts are hesitant. So are the Centerleader-association (Centerleder foreningen), that consists of the leaders of the communes' substanceabuse centers.

Promotes deroute
Social councillor in Aalborg Mai-Britt Iversen (SD) says to Ritzau that none of the commune's drugabusers will get heroin handet out.

It's particularly due to a fear of, that the offer could push the drug addicts further out in their abuse.

- Free heroin is meant as an offer for the most stressed drug abusers and thus we risk promoting a deroute. To get into consideration the abusers may start prostituting themselves or take more drugs. How else could they become qualified, says Mai-Britt Iversen.

Sustains addiction
In Århus commune the politicians have neither said yes or no but are awaiting guidance from the National Board of Health about which abusers that can get into consideration, says social manager Erik Kaastrup-Hansen.

Recently politicians and government officials visited Amsterdam where heroin has been handet out for several years and even though the visit showed that the drug abusers quality of life was enhanced, the group also travelled home with a range of concerns.

- The effort against drug abuse should preferably lead to drug indepedence but with heroin we are sustaining the abuser in an addiction. Therefore we are considering if we can help the most stressed drug abusers in another way, says Erik Kaastrup-Hansen.

Expensive and difficult.
In the Centerleader association chairman Ib Hansen says that the arrangement will be both expensive and difficult.

The abusers must have the heroin injected into the veins several times a day and it has to take place under the supervision of healthcare personnel in special clinics.

- It's a heavy apparatus to set in motion and the money could be better spend, says Ib Hansen.

Only Copenhagen and Odense communes have said yes to the arrangement so far. In Copenhagen social chief surgeon Peter Ege assesses that between 100 and 200 abusers can come into consideration and in Odense between 10 and 20.

Source: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/200...3.htm?rss=true [Article in danish]

[Figaro]

I believe they are also prescribing heroin maintains program in Spain.... I knew they were doing it in Adalucia, several years ago. But I understand that resently this has been expanded to madrid, and Barcelona. Probably whole bunch of other locations I am not aware of yet.

I found a whole bunch of links but they are in Spanish.

http://www.google.es/search?hl=es&q=...on+Google&meta=