I think so to. The biggest obstacle besides the obvious stigma is cost and I think that's probably the main reason the practice was mostly abandoned in the UK. I can't remember the exact figures but maintaining an addict on diamorphine costs the NHS orders of magnitude more than maintaining the same addict on methadone.So, what needs to be done is find an ACTUAL 1:1 type replacement for heroin as opposed to methadone or buprenorphine. This can be made cheaply and given free as long as the person is complying with instructions to become a functional member of society. They can CHOSE to keep not complying, but then no free drugs for them. Obviously, this will be a big motivation and eventually these people will become productive members of society just like in NL. That's the goal anyway
But if there were a short acting synthetic opioid with a similar half life to diamorphine that patients could collect daily and then administer at home, that could be a potential solution for those who keep relapsing with methadone alone.
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