Canada - Treating with pharmaceutical grade heroin the best option

[S.J.B.]

Treating with pharmaceutical grade heroin the best option
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.

 

[Folley]

Wasn't heroin a brand name for Bayer's brand of the drug? So technically heroin should refer to pure, pharmaceutical diacetylmorphine

 

[MikeRWK]

Way to go conservative government *golf clap*

 

[neversickanymore]

"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."

nuff said

 

['medicine cabinet']

Yea the part about an illness we do not like is great. I read that post civil war there were so many mens coming back hooked on morph that they started calling it soldiers disease. Sounds more cavalier than junkie doesnt it? Hah.

 

[HCL]

Here's what Terry Lake, Minister of Health for British Columbia, had to say in response to Ambrose's announcement: "We're reluctant to close the door on innovation and creativity when it comes to tackling these very challenging problems. We have to think out of the box sometimes. I know that the thought of using heroin as a treatment is scary for people, but I think we have to take the emotions out of it and let science inform the discussion."

*clap*

 

[Flynnal]

So-called "illnesses" such as homosexuality, unwed pregnancy, depression, autism, were are still are routinely treated with lack of respect.

Drug addiction is yet another "illness", but it's treated with even more disrespect than the above I mentioned.

It would be funny if the government decided that we (meaning them) don't like gays and started locking them up and punishing them with the legal system. Or those with depression or autism. Or those who are pregnant without being married...or even those who seek abortions. It would be strange. None of us have to agree with any of these things, but even still we have no right to judge or control other people based on our own subjective morality.

But that is PRECISELY what we are doing with the drug war - we're just enforcing our morality on those who frankly need our moral judgments being shoved down their throats like a hole in the head.

Like gays, unwed mothers, those suffering from various mental illnesses, and even those seeking abortion, drug users/addicts should be left alone - even if I disagree with some of the things that they do. It isn't my call, and society would do well to keep their collective judgments out of other's lives. I have to do it, and as far as I'm concerned so does everyone else.

 

[MemphisX3]

So-called "illnesses" such as homosexuality, unwed pregnancy, depression, autism, were are still are routinely treated with lack of respect.

Drug addiction is yet another "illness", but it's treated with even more disrespect than the above I mentioned.

It would be funny if the government decided that we (meaning them) don't like gays and started locking them up and punishing them with the legal system. Or those with depression or autism. Or those who are pregnant without being married...or even those who seek abortions. It would be strange. None of us have to agree with any of these things, but even still we have no right to judge or control other people based on our own subjective morality.

But that is PRECISELY what we are doing with the drug war - we're just enforcing our morality on those who frankly need our moral judgments being shoved down their throats like a hole in the head.

Like gays, unwed mothers, those suffering from various mental illnesses, and even those seeking abortion, drug users/addicts should be left alone - even if I disagree with some of the things that they do. It isn't my call, and society would do well to keep their collective judgments out of other's lives. I have to do it, and as far as I'm concerned so does everyone else.

hold on, did you just say unwed pregnancy and homosexuality are illnesses?

 

[Captain.Heroin]

^ no

He said autism spectrum is just that ; a spectrum, not a disorder. He was listing how people see afflictions. Afflictions can be both good and bad. EVERYTHING JUST IS. Nothing is "good" or "bad" in this world. The forms constantly change here.