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Treating with pharmaceutical grade heroin the best option
Martin Schechter
The Vancouver Sun
October 18th, 2013
Read the full story here.
Martin Schechter
The Vancouver Sun
October 18th, 2013
On Oct. 3, Rona Ambrose, Canada's Minister of Health, announced she was shutting the door on a compassionate access program that would have provided diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient in heroin, to a group of people for whom all other treatment options had failed.
"The prime minister and I do not believe," said Ambrose, "we are serving the best interests of those addicted to drugs and those who need our help the most by giving them the very drugs they are addicted to".
So what will happen to these people as a result of the minister's decision? Given the severity and length of their illness and that our best conventional treatments have not benefited them in the past despite repeated attempts, it is likely that they will relapse to the use of illicit heroin.
This is a very dangerous street drug. Because it is of unknown dose and purity, they will face the risk of overdose. Because it is illegal, they will inject it in unsafe places with contaminated syringes that transmit HIV, hepatitis and other life-threatening infections. They will be in and out of hospitals like a revolving door.
In order to obtain their next fix, they will be slaves to a daily grind of crime and sex work, while enriching the gangs and cartels that supply their black market drug. They will visit police cruisers, jails and courtrooms, and be in and out of prison like yet another revolving door. They will cost us all a fortune while suffering immeasurably because they have an illness we do not like.
Read the full story here.