Bill in Nevada would establish first heroin maintenance program in the United States

[cj]

http://www.thefix.com/content/nevad...azing-heroin-assisted-treatment-pilot-program

My iPad sucks and won't let me copy paste the article but in summary there's a bill in the Nevada legislature to set up a pilot program for a H maintenance program. If someone would copy a preview of the article I would appreciate it.


Nevada Senate Considers Trailblazing Heroin-Assisted Treatment Pilot Program
By John Lavitt 03/30/15
TREATMENT PROFESSIONAL NEWS: If adopted, the new program will be the first of its kind in the United States.

The Nevada State Senate is on the verge of breaking new ground by considering the possibility of a pioneering heroin-assisted treatment program. Although such programs have reduced overdoses, disease, and crime in numerous first-world countries, any proposal for heroin-assisted treatment has been rejected in the United States. Nevada Senate Bill 275 is one of the first legitimate attempts at funding such a program by either state or federal government.

In March of 2015, Nevada State Senator Richard Segerblom introduced Senate Bill 275. The groundbreaking legislation would fund a four-year heroin-assisted treatment pilot project. SB 275 would task the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health of the Department of Health and Human Services with modeling the heroin-assisted treatment pilot program on the successful programs in other countries.

Also known as heroin maintenance, heroin-assisted treatment refers to the supervised administration by a doctor of pharmaceutical-grade heroin (diacetylmorphine) to chronic heroin users. The program would start with a small group of users who have repeatedly failed to respond to traditional forms of treatment, including methadone, naltrexone, and buprenorphine.

Senate Bill 275 is considered radical because the United States has ignored this successful method of treatment. Since punitive approaches have failed as the opioid epidemic continues to rage across the country, Senator Segerblom believes a new approach needs to be embraced. As he explained when questioned about the bill, “The War on Drugs is over, we lost ... Now it’s time to face reality and look for new solutions. SB 275 is one of those solutions.”

Still, despite the need for such a program, resistance is entrenched, as many do not consider treating drug use with the drug an option. This remains true despite the fact that heroin-assisted treatment programs have been remarkably successful in Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

If the bill is passed, the program is slated to begin treating patients by Jan. 1, 2017. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, hopes the heroin-assisted treatment bill passes and breaks new ground in national efforts to stop opioid abuse and the devastation left in its wake.

As Nadelmann explained in a recent interview, “Heroin-assisted treatment has proven effective in reducing crime, disease and death everywhere it’s been tried ... What’s more, it helps precisely those people who have tried everything else to overcome their addiction and failed. All that stands in the way of starting such programs in our country is backward thinking and drug war ideology.”

 

[jammin83]

I don't see how that would be possible given that heroin is a schedule I substance. I highly doubt the federal government would make an exception to import pharmaceutical heroin in but it would be great if this was able to get through. The federal government doesn't seem to understand harm reduction too well.

IMO heroin is easier to get off than methadone and suboxone, at least in terms of duration. The main problem is that it is hard to determine dosages accurately with the street stuff. These maintenance drugs are big business though and IMO people stay on them for way too long and find them too difficult to get off of. In short, tapering off of heroin in a controlled environment seems pretty reasonable to me.

I like it! +1 for Nevada!

 

[cj]

Thanks NSA. Yeah I don't know if this will actually happen or not but it would be cool if it did.

 

['medicine cabinet']

One thing I could never understand is why its class b (CII) in places like the UK, so basically viewed as morphine or hydromorphone, and here its CI. Its apples and oranges. Anyone know the exact reasoning?

I think its great tho that Nevada is trying this. So much heat is going to be around it that I have a feeling its going to end up burning it down. People aren't ready for that, and when I say ppl I mean non drug users. Heroin has the worst wrap of just about any drug there is yet booze flows freely.

I hope this works out, I am so.ewhat surprised this didnt start in Cali or jersey or even bmore where heroin use is crazy high as is the crime rate associated with doing things to score.

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

It would make sense as if I'm not mistaken, Nevada has the highest unemployment in the United States. Their economy is not very diverse so recessions and hard times hit that state particularly hard.

 

[Crankinit]

One thing I could never understand is why its class b (CII) in places like the UK, so basically viewed as morphine or hydromorphone, and here its CI. Its apples and oranges. Anyone know the exact reasoning?

There is none - it's all back to the politics and racism which triggered prohibition and the drug war and the legislation surrounding it. Hence having marijuana, LSD and heroin in the same legal category (and a higher one than cocaine).

You can't go looking for logic in the drug war.

But this is good news - chances are it won't go ahead (they tried here in Aus in the 90's when our heroin problem was at it's worst, but the conservative government killed it - now we have a meth epidemic! thanks Howard), but the fact that it's even being discussed on a governmental level (albeit a state government), in the US of all places, is amazing.

 

[ro4eva]

As with legalized weed, there will undoubtedly be a lot of idiots trying to stall progress regarding something they know little about because it conflicts with their moral compass or vested interests.

Let's hope that more and more individuals wake the fuck up and realize that their views regarding such topics have been significantly influenced by decades of unending government bias, lies and deceit.

Diacetylmorphine (Heroin) is no more of a risk to patients receiving it under the supervision of a properly trained physician than is Methadone. The bigger problem when comparing the two drugs is that the public has been conditioned for a long time now by their two-faced government to almost automatically react negatively to anything having to do with the word "Heroin."

The sad truth is that if the aforementioned non-using public was to observe a homeless person sticking a needle into his arm with no knowledge of the existence of "Heroin" or other IV 'street drugs,' well, I'd argue they would react about as negatively as they tend to do around a drunk person - typically a huge difference.

Edit - And I'm sorry to go off topic here, but it seems that the same is true for pretty much everything, even though we may know little about it on a personal level. So when we are repeatedly taught that 'this' is bad by the authorities and/or even the mainstream media, the word(s) in question seems to automatically elicit a heated reaction. Examples: drugs, meth, underage sex, communists, Muslims, gays, abortion, Kim Kardashian, and much more. Hopefully that makes some sense.