What are the requirements for the Swiss heroin programme?

[chinacat311]

I think I kind of understand what the OP is thinking. It's a thought most or all us drug seekers (more specifically opiate users) have.
A life where our DOC is legal and financially acceptable. A life where no user needs to worry about waking up sick and out of dope.

Though I dont think it's going to happen anytime soon.

actually that life sounds terrific..ive alwas thought about how heroin woudnt be all that bad if it was priovded consistently and safely

 

[kratom luver]

OP: I honestly dont know how good your chances of getting on a foreign program like this would be. Like I asked in your other thread... whats going on? Are you just looking to get high off whatever (heroin, methadone, bupe) or are you trying to get clean? I dont see where youre coming from.....

This was a hypothetical question that I'm sure a lot of people would be quite interested in having answered. If things were different, I might consider moving to join this diamorphine maintenance programme as it would have such a positive impact on my life that it would be worth moving to Switzerland. I am, however, doing okay on methadone and see no reason to move, so I guess this question is moot. I just asked because I was simply curious. Sorry for wasting your time.

 

[djsim]

^ No need to get defensive, was just asking cos I didnt know the answer. I was assuming it was hypothetical, so yeh, I understand the point of the thread... not a waste of time at all IMO

 

[kratom luver]

No, no, I'm sorry if it sounded as if I was being defensive. You have my word that I wasn't at all annoyed. I think you've got the wrong end of the stick and I apologise for coming off like that. I hope you're not offended

 

[Tchort]

I think it would be perfectly reasonable for someone to move to another country solely to receive this medical treatment. Some people simply do not tolerate Buprenorphine or Methadone well, they function at a minimal level because physically and emotionally they are well below 100%. People often move from one country to another to receive medical treatment that is only available in a certain country or region or city, it isn't that rare. Heroin maintenance at this point in time is meant for a very specific patient, someone who cannot succeed with current treatment methods, and has tried several. I can only imagine the vast difference in quality of life someone encounters when going from the hell of illicit addiction or inadequate treatment to a medical protocol that actually works. Eventually Diamorphine Rx will grow and become more socially acceptable and thus more available. Funny how we started out with Heroin and Morphine maintenance clinics at little or no cost to the patient as the initial treatment for addiction after the Harrison Act; and now almost a hundred years later we're back to it.

 

[methadon30000]

R u interested in becoming a candidate?

 

[Cane2theLeft]

^very insightful points! Initially I looked down at the notion of someone moving to another country for heroin maintenance as self-indulgent and opportunistic despite my positive views towards heroin maintenance but your framing changed my perspective.

Also, your contextualization of heroin maintenance one hundred years ago coming full circle really puts into perspective the atrociously harmful and puritanical mores our society has imposed and how far we've been set back. The prospect of these programs and others like it spreading IS quite encouraging however.

 

[Tchort]

I am very discouraged by the British System, unfortunately. The guidelines are very lax and patient-oriented, which would make it the most patient friendly Diamorphine maintenance program- only for the last 40 years, they have all but refused to use it. Fortunately trials are being run like their European neighbors, which may lead to a higher number of patients treated with it.

The practice of prescribing heroin to addicts was standard in England from the 1920s to the 1960s. In response to political pressure from the U.S., heroin maintenance was severely curtailed in 1971 when passage of the Misuse of Drugs Act added burdensome regulations. Government disapproval led to a sharp decline in the practice among private physicians. The loss of a controlled distribution system and subsequent creation of an unregulated illicit market allowed the number of heroin users to skyrocket from fewer than 2,000 in 1970 to upwards of 300,000 today. What was once discouraged is now being promoted in England, in large part due to a perceived increase in heroin-related crime.

A glance at heroin laws around Europe

The Associated Press – Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:04 am ET

Countries with prescription heroin treatment for addicts:

• Switzerland's heroin prescription program has been running since 1994. Nearly 1,300 addicts are injecting the drug under tight supervision this year in one of 23 centers, which also provide psychiatric and social counseling.

• In the Netherlands, heroin prescription has been a regular treatment since 2006. Nearly 600 patients inject the drug under supervision in one of 15 treatment units.

• In Britain, heroin has been prescribed by licensed doctors since the 1920s, but the country has been running limited trials with injection clinics in recent years.

• Denmark in May passed a bill making heroin prescription a permanent treatment.

• A three-year pilot project by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research involving 251 addicts in Vancouver and Montreal ended in June. The results of the Canadian trial are still being assessed, but data show that patients' health improved and crime dropped sharply, said the researchers.

• Trials with heroin treatment also have been carried out in Belgium, Germany and Spain.

 

[smokeymcpot42088]

hypothetically, if they did approve heroin maintenence, and we all got it.....

Would we be allowed to ask harm reduction questions about getting high on it?

or would that be abusing the program?

 

[Tchort]

hypothetically, if they did approve heroin maintenence, and we all got it.....

Would we be allowed to ask harm reduction questions about getting high on it?

or would that be abusing the program?

The whole point is getting high. Patient compliance is the one failsafe of IV Heroin maintenance; patients use as much as they want (the average dose for a shot in the Swiss program was just under a half-gram of pure Diacetylmorphine 2 times a day; hundreds of time more than the average US street addict uses). There is no abusing the program.